The Hogwarts Mission
by Zardi47
Summary: Team Seven is working together again, and this time the mission seems a little... magical. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke get sent on a year long mission to protect Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament. Occurs around 1 year after the Fourth Shinobi War, when Sasuke was still on his redemption journey. Rated T for potential violence, dark themes, and mild cursing.
1. Chapter 1

**Right, uh, so this is my first Fanfic, so I really have no idea how to do author notes. I don't if this is it. At any rate, hope you enjoy the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto. Unfortunately. Actually, if I did own them, I would probably butcher them, so I'm glad I don't own them.**

 **Chapter 1**

Kakashi sighed as he stared at the mountain of papers on his desk. He knew becoming the Hokage meant tons of desk work, which was one of the main reasons he hadn't wanted to become the Hokage in the first place. He hadn't really had much choice in the matter. He scanned through the papers in front of him, and one paper in particular caught his eye. He pulled it out from under the other papers on top of it to read it more clearly.

The door opened. Kakashi looked up and saw Shikamaru walking in the room, another pile of papers in his hand. Kakashi frowned and inwardly groaned as the pile was added to his desk, but then raised his head to look at the young man.

"Ah, Shikamaru. Just the person I was looking for." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"What can I do for you, Lord Hokage?" He asked. Kakashi waved his arm at the title.

"I told you to stop being so formal," he reprimanded. Shikamaru ignored it.

"Well?"

"Ah, right. Could you tell Naruto and Sakura to come here? I have a mission for them." Shikamaru nodded and turned back to the door, but stopped before he left. He turned back around to see Kakashi writing something down on a scroll.

"Lord Hokage, both Naruto and Sakura are more than capable shinobi, but shouldn't there be another team member?" Kakashi finished writing and got up from his desk, rolling up the scroll and calling down a hawk to his window.

"I'm sure you already know the answer to your own question, Shikamaru." He side glanced at the younger man at the door. Shikamaru smirked before giving him a nod.

"You should return to your other papers, Lord Hokage. They are piling up." Kakashi sighed as he sent the hawk away from the window, now burdened with the scroll. He eyed his desk scornfully.

"Don't need to remind me…"

About 15 minutes later, a knock sounded on his door.

"Come in!" he called out, and the door opened to reveal Shikamaru with Naruto and Sakura in tow.

His previous students walked in, smiling at him.

"Hey Kakashi sensei! Shikamaru said you had a mission for us?" Naruto asked immediately. Sakura said her own greeting with a tilt of her head. Shikamaru smiled wryly as he shook his head, then left, closing the door behind him. Under his mask, Kakashi smiled at Naruto's impatience.

"Calm down. Yes, I have an A-rank mission for you two, but you will be part of a three-member team." He began, but he was interrupted by Naruto.

"Yes! Finally! It was getting kinda boring just chilling around the village and training, and taking C-rank missions!" A tick mark appeared on Sakura's forehead. She clenched her fists by her side, barely restraining herself from punching him all the way to Sunagakure.

"Naruto…" Her threatening tone made Naruto calm down a bit and nervously turned towards her.

"I'll calm down now Sakura. Just please don't punch me." He smiled and put his hands up in surrender, still sweating a bit. Suddenly Sakura snapped out of her annoyance and cocked her head to the side, turning towards Kakashi. Their old sensei had been watching in amusement, but now turned his attention to Sakura.

"Hey, wait. You said we were part of a three-person team. Who else is going?" Naruto also turned to Kakashi and awaited his answer.

"Well, you will actually be meeting him at the school where you will be protecting the students." He began. Naruto and Sakura exchanged glances, suddenly having the sneaking suspicion as to the mystery team member.

"Sasuke will be the accompanying you on this mission." He finally revealed. His student's eyes lit up, and they smiled at each other happily. Kakashi's eyes crinkled at their happiness. They had both gone through so much to get their friend back, and in the end, he _had_ returned. Sort of. Kakashi chuckled inwardly as he imagined the reactions that 12 year-old Naruto and Sakura would have had. Now, they simply smiled. Though at times it didn't seem so, they had matured greatly. Everyone who had been in the war had. Kakashi shook his head, bringing himself out of nostalgia.

"Okay, now I'm going to explain the mission to you." He waited for their attention before continuing. "I'm sure you are at least a little aware of the Outside?" They nodded.

"Yeah. The elemental nations are surrounded by powerful border that mostly keeps us in, and the rest of the world out. Occasionally, shinobi will be requested for some missions from the Outside, but this hasn't been done for a century or so. At least, for Konoha." Sakura said. Kakashi nodded his head.

"Correct. Even when we were asked for missions, they only came from high ranking officials or nobles, and the wizarding community." At this, Naruto and Sakura frowned in confusion.

"Wizarding community?" Naruto asked.

"Wizards and Witches. The majority of them use wands and spells, brew potions, play games on flying broomsticks, wear robes and pointy hats, etc." They blinked at him, before raising an eyebrow.

"So, are the spells like jutsu's but only with wands?" Sakura asked. Kakashi stroked his masked chin.

"Sort of. My understanding is that magic is similar to spiritual chakra, and they can use the wands to focus their exceptional spiritual chakra, however they do not and perhaps cannot use the physical side of chakra. Their bodies are not fit to undergo too much physical exertion." Sakura nodded, and Naruto tilted his head to the side.

"'Kay, so, I think I got that, but I may have to see it in person to truly understand it."

"Well, then you're in luck. It just so happens that the school that you have been requested to protect, Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, is a school teaching young wizards and witches about magic." Their eyes widend.

"So it's kind of like the academy?" Sakura asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"Not exactly… It's similar in concept, however the children there begin their school at age 11, and attend for seven years. Wizards and Witches become legal adults there at age 17, whereas you guys become legal adults whenever you graduate the academy." The both looked stunned.

"And the average age for graduating the academy is 12…" Sakura murmured. Kakashi nodded. Naruto remained speechless with his jaw dropped comically.

"Close your mouth idiot!" Sakura reprimanded. Naruto promptly shut his mouth. Kakashi smiled, then glanced at the scroll in front of him.

"Now, your mission is to protect this school and its students from a certain renegade group of wizards and witches. The person who sent in this mission request was Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of the school, and he will provide you with more information on the threats and any other specifics you will need to know."

"But sensei, why is he requesting us now? What's different?" Sakura asked. Kakashi sighed.

"Well, apparently the school will be hosting something called the Triwizard Tournament, a contest that hasn't been done in over a century due to all the lives lost. This tournament is a competition between three wizarding schools, and one champion from each school compete in three different trials over the course of the school year. Dumbledore informs me in is letter that he suspects the other schools are also hiring their own ninja for protection, and seeing that his school is hosting, he wants the best." Naruto and Sakura grinned at his praise.

"Thank you Kakashi sensei!" Naruto beamed.

"Wait, does that mean this will be a year long mission?" Sakura asked. Naruto calmed down and, curious, waited for the answer as well. Kakashi nodded.

"I know this is an unusually long mission for you two, seeing how you are both important to the village. However, we still have Tsunade and Shizune here to head the medic nins, even if she is retired, and numerous other talented shinobi. As for you Naruto, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for you to get introduced to the diplomatic and leadership part of being Hokage, and truth be told we don't know too much about the wizarding world. This will also be a good opportunity for you to work with Sasuke again, and I'm sure Shikamaru would be happy to send you along with 'homework'." Naruto's face had gone through numerous expressions while Kakashi had been talking. He had brightened at the thought of working with Sasuke, but frowned and slumped his shoulders dramatically at the thought of paperwork. Sakura patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry. I'll help you." She consoled. Kakashi smiled under his mask.

"Well, you've got your mission, and any other information will be given to you by the Headmaster when you arrive. Speaking of which, once you have packed your belongings and said your goodbyes, come back here to find out how to get there." The two of the them nodded and walked out the door, Naruto already talking about stopping by Ichiraku's before they left.

Somewhere in a distant forest, a young dark haired man woke up from his nap. He sat up from the indent in the tree where he had been lying and held out an arm to receive the messenger hawk that had woken him. He unsealed the scroll from the hawk's pouch and quickly scanned it with the one eye that wasn't covered by hair.

"A new mission, huh? And with Naruto and Sakura…" He quickly produced a writing utensil and scribbled out a reply. He then tucked the scroll back into the hawks pouch and launched the bird to the sky. With a loud caw, the hawk receded into the distance. After taking a moment to watch the quickly disappearing bird, the man began to pack up his measly amount of belongings.

"And a school for witches and wizards. This mission will certainly be interesting. It will be good to see those two again." With that, he set off for his new destination.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Harry slumped down in his seat, sighing. After having to deal with Draco and then Peeves, he was already exhausted.

"Harry! You should pay more attention to the sorting ceremony! You know it's the first one you've actually been to in past three years, right?" Hermione scolded. Harry nodded.

"Blimey, Hermione. Would you leave 'im alone already?" Ron groaned beside him. Hermione turned her wrath on him.

"And don't get me started on you, Ronald!"

"Oh boy, she went for the full name," Harry mumbled, smirking slightly. Both of his best friends shot him a glare, and Hermione looked about to say something when Dumbledore called everyone's attention.

"About time," said Ron, seizing his knife and fork and looking expectantly at his golden plate. Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was smiling around at the students, his arms opened wide in welcome.

"I have only two words to say to you," he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall.

"Tuck in."

"Hear, hear!" said Harry and Ron loudly as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes.

Hermione rolled her eyes and they all dug into their food.

When the puddings too had been demolished, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.

"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered," ("Hmph!" said Hermione (she had found out that house elves made all of their meals and was extremely peeved at the notion)) "I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"What?" Harry gasped. He looked around at Fred and George, his fellow members of the Quidditch team. They were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore, apparently too appalled to speak. Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then began to walk up toward the teachers' table.

A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling. Hermione stranger reached Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering words Harry couldn't hear. He seemed to be making some inquiry of the stranger, who shook his head smilingly and replied in an undertone. Dumbledore nodded and gestured the man to the empty seat on his right-hand side.

The stranger sat down, shook his mane of dark gray hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages toward him, raised it to what was left of his nose, and sniffed it. He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it, and began to eat. His normal eye was fixed upon the sausages, but the blue eye was still darting restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody, "we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" said Fred Weasley loudly.

The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed, and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively.

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar."

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er - but maybe this is not the time...no..." said Dumbledore, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament...well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Death toll?" Hermione whispered, looking alarmed. But her anxiety did not seem to be shared by the majority of students in the Hall; many of them were whispering excitedly to one another, and Harry himself was far more interested in hearing about the tournament than in worrying about deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger.

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"I'm going for it!" Fred Weasley hissed down the table, his face lit with enthusiasm at the prospect of such glory and riches. He was not the only person who seemed to be visualizing himself as the Hogwarts champion. At every House table, Harry could see people either gazing raptly at Dumbledore, or else whispering fervently to their neighbors. But then Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall quieted once more.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," he said, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This -" Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious - "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred's and George's mutinous faces. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen. As an added precaution, I have taken it upon myself to hire three very talented shinobi as guards. As of right now, only one of them has arrived, however I am sure the other two will be joining us shortly. They will introduce themselves once they have all arrived, but until then, if you happen to see a strange man in the corridors, do not be alarmed.

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. To my understanding they will also bring along their own shinobi guards that they have hired specifically for this event. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"Dumbledore sat down again and turned to talk to Mad-Eye Moody. There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed toward the double doors into the entrance hall.

"They can't do that!" said George Weasley, who had not joined the crowd moving toward the door, but was standing up and glaring at Dumbledore. "We're seventeen in April, why can't we have a shot?"

"They're not stopping me entering," said Fred stubbornly, also scowling at the top table. "The champions'll get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand Galleons prize money!"

"Yeah," said Ron, a faraway look on his face. "Yeah, a thousand Galleons..."

"Come on," said Hermione, "we'll be the only ones left here if you don't move."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George set off for the entrance hall, Fred and George debating the ways in which Dumbledore might stop those who were under seventeen from entering the tournament.

"Who do you think these shinobi guards are?" Harry asked. Ron shrugged.

"I dunno. Never heard of 'em." Harry turned to see Hermione deep in thought.

"Hermione?" He asked. She looked up sharply, startled.

"Oh! Um, I'm pretty sure that 'shinobi' is another word for ninja…" She trailed off. Harry and Ron straightened.

"Say what now?" Harry asked, incredulous.

"Ninja's? That's bloody brilliant!" Ron exclaimed.

"Well, I'm actually quite confused." Hermione confided. "I thought shinobi didn't have magic." The boys stopped walking and after a few steps, Hermione realized her friends were not longer with her. She turned around, seeing them gawking at her.

"What?"

"They're not wizards?" Harry asked.

"Then how the hell are they supposed to protect us!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione frowned and motioned to them to keep walking up the steps.

"They're probably here not only to protect the champions from dying in the tasks, but also from Death Eaters. Especially after what happened at the Quidditch World Cup." Harry pointed out. Hermione nodded.

"And he also said there's only three of them. How are they supposed to protect the entire school with only three of them and no magic?" Hermione threw her hands up in confusion. "Tomorrow I'm going to need to-"

"Go to the library." Harry and Ron chorused, finishing her sentence for her. She shot them a glare.

They made their way up to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, which was concealed behind a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she said as they approached.

"Balderdash," said George, "a prefect downstairs told me."

The portrait swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall through which they all climbed. A crackling fire warmed the circular common room, which was full of squashy armchairs and tables. Hermione cast the merrily dancing flames a dark look, and Harry distinctly heard her mutter "Slave labor" before bidding them good night and disappearing through the doorway to the girls' dormitory. Harry and Ron made their way up to their own dormitory, and all Harry could think about that night was the Triwizard tournament and the supposedly magicless guards.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The next day, they started school, going from one wierd class to the next. Divination in particular had been...interesting.

They reached the entrance hall, which was packed with people queuing for dinner. They had just joined the end of the line, when a loud voice rang out behind them.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.

"What?" said Ron shortly.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!

FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC  
It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."

Malfoy looked up.

"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed.

Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:

Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene.

"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

Ron was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron..."

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Malfoy. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

"You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Harry - both he and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy - "that expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"

Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," said Harry, turning away.

BANG!

Several people screamed - Harry felt something white-hot graze the side of his face - he plunged his hand into his robes for his wand, but before he'd even touched it, he heard a second loud BANG, and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"

Harry spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.

There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. Moody turned to look at Harry - at least, his normal eye was looking at Harry; the other one was pointing into the back of his head.

"Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly.

"No," said Harry, "missed."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." said a soft male voice from behind him. Harry and everyone else whirled around to see a tall mysterious man standing behind Crabbe, who had just frozen, about to pick up the white ferret. The mans nearly shoulder length black hair completely covered his left eye, and he wore a long black cloak that stopped around his shins and tall black sandals. He glared down a Crabbe with his right eyes, making shivers run down Harry's spine even though the glare wasn't directed at him.

Moody nodded to the man, and started to limp toward Crabbe, Goyle, and the ferret, which gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking toward the dungeons.

"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again - it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..."

The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly.

"Never - do - that - again -" said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.

"Professor Moody!" said a shocked McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books. Harry looked around, but to his surprise, the man was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.

"What - what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.

"Teaching," said Moody.

"Teach - Moody, is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.

"Yep," said Moody.

"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing.

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall wealdy. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock -"

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Malfoy with great dislike.

Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable.

"Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy...You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son...you tell him that from me...Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"

"Yes," said Malfoy resentfully.

"Another old friend," growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape...Come on, you..."

And he seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons.

Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms.

"Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to Harry and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.

"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.

"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."

Harry and Hermione both laughed, and Hermione began doling beef casserole onto each of their plates.

"He could have really hurt Malfoy, though," she said. "It was good, really, that Professor McGonagall stopped it -"

"Hermione!" said Ron furiously, his eyes snapping open again, "you're ruining the best moment of my life!"

"Guys, do you think that man who stopped Crabbe was one of the guards?" Harry asked, interrupting his friends before they started arguing. They looked at him.

"I guess so. He was bloody creepy. Even though his hair covered his left eye, I got a peek at it- just the slightest bit. His eye was all weird looking, like his entire eye was purple with these ripple marks." Ron gushed, lowering his voice a bit. Hermione and Harry gave him a sceptical look.

"Ron, an eye can't look like that." Hermione dismissed.

'I'm telling you, that's what I saw!"

"Then you saw wrong or something." Harry said. Ron glared at him.

"But, you know, that guy was really young looking. Like not much older than the seventh years. Could he really be one of the guards?" Hermione speculated, doubt obvious in her tone. Harry pointed up to the staff table.

"I guess we'll know soon enough, won't we." They looked up and saw the three empty extra chairs at the end of the table. At that moment Dumbledore called for everyone's attention.

"Good evening! I hope you've all had a wonderful first day back. Now, as fortune has it, the other two guards have arrived, and will now introduce themselves."


	4. Chapter 4

**Omg this story has been up for literally less than 10 minutes and already has views. Thank you so much** Lightningblade49 **for being my first reviewer and reviewing every chapter so far! I only actually wrote up to this much so far, but hopefully will post another chapter soon. Probably not tonight, though if I procrastinate on my homework then maybe.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either series. Thank the gods.**

 **Chapter 4**

Earlier that day, Naruto and Sakura appeared out of thin air outside of the Hogwarts gates, and promptly leaned over to empty their lunches.

"That was worse than being subjected to the Kamui!" Sakura complained. Naruto grunted and wiped his mouth.

"Why couldn't we have traveled here normally? Why did Kakashi sensei insist we had to use that… whatever it was called!" He exclaimed.

"Portkey. That thing was a portkey. Apparently it's some sort of teleporter. And he said it would get us here faster without us having to need to take the time to travel here via boat." Sakura supplied.

"Oh yeah? Then what about Sasuke?" He retorted.

"I got here by using the rinnegans space-time jutsu." Said a male voice in front of them. They looked up to see Sasuke standing before them, just outside the gate. His two teammates lit up, beaming at him.

"Sasuke!" They chorused, and he rolled his eyes.

"But, that technique uses up tons of chakra." Sakura pointed out. Sasuke nodded.

"True, however not much has been needed of me for the amount of time I have been here, so I had time to allow my chakra to replenish." Sakura nodded in understanding, and Naruto kept the stupid grin on his face. "Come. We have to talk to Professor Dumbledore before we introduce ourselves at dinner tonight." They nodded and entered the gate, picking up speed and soon they were running across the lake. Naruto and Sakura gasped in admiration.

"It's beautiful!" Sakura exclaimed.

"It's huge! This mission is already starting to sound troublesome." Naruto grumbled. Sasuke smirked.

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded. "Stop acting like Shikamaru!" Naruto held his hands up in defense.

"Hey do you think they have ramen?" Just then they reached the castle doors. The slowed to a stop and Sasuke led them inside and through a series of halls. Several times they had to walk on the ceiling to avoid the halls crowded with students, but they weren't noticed. Not that they tryin to _not_ be noticed. Although, waiting to be seen would allow them a better opportunity for a dramatic entrance.

The came to a stop before a statue of a griffin, and with a "lemon drops" from Sasuke, the griffin moved to the side to reveal a long winding staircase. As soon as they stepped on the first step, the walls contorted and they were suddenly at the top of the stairs in front of a wooden door. Naruto and Sakura quickly got their bearings as Sasuke knocked on the door, him already being used to the dizzying experience.

"Come in." A deep voice called from behind the door, and Sasuke walked in, his two teammates following behind. Naruto and Sakura gazed around the peculiar office before their eyes settled on the old eccentric looking man behind the desk. They took in his looooong white beard, moon shaped glasses, and sparkly deep blue robe and pointy hat. The three lined up in front of the desk, Naruto in the middle, Sakura to his right, and Sasuke on his left. They bowed formally in greeting.

"Professor Dumbledore." Sasuke began. "You already know me, and this is Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno." The ninja straightened and Dumbledore nodded his head in response.

"A pleasure to meet you both, finally. I am Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of this school. To begin with I would like to thank you all for accepting this mission. When we planned the recommission of the Triwizard Tournament, I made the suggesting of requesting your services once more. You see, traditionally, shinobi would be hired during this tournament, although not as many as this year. Now we not only ask you to look after the students who are participating and try to save them from fatal mistakes, but we also face the threat of Death Eaters." Naruto smothered a snort at the name. "Death Eaters are what we call the followers of the evil wizard Voldemort, who disappeared and is presumed killed 14 years ago. His followers have become more active this year, so we request that you also remain vigilant and protect the students from this threat as well." They nodded, and Sakura spoke up.

"Professor Dumbledore, why did you say that Voldemort disappeared and is presumed killed?" Dumbledore smiled grimly at her.

"You are a sharp young women, Ms. Haruno." She smiled slightly at him. "The answer to your question is merely an old man's paranoia. You see, 14 years ago, Voldemort attempted to kill a 15 month old baby boy named Harry Potter after murdering his parents. However, due to the way his mother protected him when she was killed, Harry was protected by her love, and the killing curse that Voldemort cast on him rebounded killed him."

"Then why are you unsure that he is actually dead?" Naruto asked.

"Because his body was never found, and I have reason to believe he somehow found a way to come back from the dead, or in the least, come back from the brink of death." The three shinobi exchanged glances. They'd had their own experiences with people coming back from the dead.

" If I may, what are those reasons?" Sakura asked. Dumbledore smiled.

"I am afraid I cannot answer that at this moment, Ms. Haruno." Sakura nodded.

"Headmaster, are there any other duties you would like for us to perform?" Sasuke asked, returning to the original conversation. Dumbledore nodded.

"As a matter of fact, the boy I mentioned earlier, Harry Potter, currently attends this school. He is a fourth year, and seems to be a magnet for trouble.I would like you to simply keep a closer eye on him, while completing your other duties." He glanced at a clock on the wall.

"It appears to be nearing dinner time. We should make our way down to the dinner hall. I will introduce you before we being eating, and then you can sit at the staff table and eat with us." They nodded and followed him out of the room, Naruto gawking at the moving pictures. On the way down, Naruto led the discussion on the plan for their entrance.

Dumbledore disappeared right before they reached the grand hall, and Sasuke leaded them the rest of the way. When they got there, they quickly shushined to the enchanted ceiling.

Sasuke noticed a skirmish happening on the floor near the entrance a quickly jumped down to intervene, while Naruto and Sakura gazed around the awe inspiring room.

"I feel like I'm flying," Sakura murmured, gazing at her feet. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, and look at those floating candles! How do they stay there? Ninja wire?" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Idiot. It's magic."

"Oh. Right." At that moment, Sasuke jumped back up by their side.

"Naruto, Sakura. You see that boy with the black hair?" They followed his arm and nodded when they saw the boy sitting at the 'red' table. "That's Harry Potter, the boy we're supposed to key an eye on."

"Guys, I think Dumbledore is about to introduce us. Get ready!" Naruto exclaimed, brightening with excitement. Sakura nudged him lightly. Well, lightly for her. It still felt like a normal punch to Naruto.

"Idiot calm down."

"Yes ma'am…" he muttered miserably, rubbing his sore side. Sasuke smirked at the interaction. Dumbledore's voice rang out from down below them, effectively silencing any side conversations.

"Good evening! I hope you've all had a wonderful first day back. Now, as fortune has it, the other two guards have arrived, and will now introduce themselves."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi again! Just want to say this, I will not be updating every day. Just right now, I'm super psyched about this story and uploading it to the website, so I have a lot of writing energy. I actually have no idea how often I will be uploading, but probably at least once a week. It really depends on how much time I have and how I feel like procrastinating. Did you know that there is no word in German that translates to 'procrastinate'? Okay, now I'm just blabbing, so I hope you enjoy the chapter! Also a HUGE thank you to everyone who favorited and subscribed to alerts, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who reviewed! I feel like a little girl bouncing up and down and beaming like an idiot every time I get a notification. Not that I'm a girl or anything...**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Naruto or Harry P**

 **Chapter 5**

Dumbledore glanced around the room a bit before sitting down. As soon as he sat down, three shadows fell from above and blurred through the tables. Everyone in the room blinked as three figures seemingly appeared in the front of the room, just in front of the staff table. Harry tilted his head curiously as they bowed to the entire student body. When they straightened, Harry could finally see them clearly. On the left stood the raven haired man from earlier, and in the middle stood another young man as tall as the first. He had short blonde hair and a black cloth headband sporting a metal plate with some sort of design. From where Harry sat, it looked kind of like a leaf, although he was too far away to tell. He wore a loose long sleeved black jacket-shirt and orange pants, with black sandals. Around his left arm was a red band, and a small pouch was wrapped around his right leg. The most curious details about him were, however, his entirely bandaged right hand and the whisker like marks on his cheeks. On the right stood a very peculiar young woman. She had shoulder length bright pink hair parted to the side and held back with a pink cloth, and a purple diamond mark could be seen on her forehead. She wore a sleeveless red qipao dress that reaches her upper thighs with white trimmings, tied with a black obi. She had black shorts underneath the dress, black gloves, and grey elbow and knee protectors, and highheeled black sandals. Like the blonde man, she wore a small pouch around her right leg.

The blonde man smiled widely as he surveyed the students in front of him, then waved.

"Hey! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and the captain of our team. If you need any help, I should be around somewhere near you at all times." His two teammates side glanced him, while the silent hall erupted into whispers.

"How do you reckon he'll be around all of us at the same time?" Ron whispered. Harry shook his head, and Hermione gazed at the critically. Harry could almost see the gears turning in her head.

The pink haired girl went next, putting a hand on her hip and giving the hall a kind but almost sly grin.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. I am the medic of this team, and will be coordinating with your school nurse. If you are hurt or need any other help, just find me or one of my other teammates and I can patch you up right away."

"You can also call her if you need your pickle jar opened." Piped the newly named Naruto. Said man suddenly raised his hands nervously as killing intent filled the room around them. The students up front shivered for no apparent reason.

"What he means is that she is very strong, so don't get on her bad side." The dark haired man interrupted. Even though his voice was soft, it travelled around the room and stopped any side conversations. The killing intent vanished and Sakura pouted off to the side. The man continued.

"I am Sasuke Uchiha." It seemed that was all the information he would be giving.

"Uhh, okay…" Harry muttered. Suddenly a loud and sneering voice echoed across the room.

"How exactly are you three supposed to protect us? If you hadn't noticed, there are a lot of us and the castle is huge, not to mention you're _muggles!_ " Harry gritted his teeth when he saw that, surprise, surprise, Malfoy had been the one that called out. The three shinobi turned to face him, glancing at each other in confusion.

"What's a muggle?" Naruto asked. A collective "what?" echoed through the room. Dumbledore leaned forward from his chair.

"A muggle is someone who does not posses magic." He supplied. Understanding dawned on the shinobi's faces. Sasuke was the one to speak up, his face stoic as ever.

"Well Mr. Ferret," He began, but was cut off by the entire hall erupting in laughter.

"Oh! I..Like..Him!" Ron gasped out, holding on to his stomach. Harry laughed even harder when he saw Malfoy's face go bright red. Even Hermione giggled, and Harry spied the teachers smiling a bit. Soon the hall quieted and Sasuke continued.

"As I was saying, while we do not have your traditional view of magic, we have a few tricks of our own. We simply do not need wands and broomsticks to do so." His two companions grinned as if sharing a secret, and nodded.

"In fact, I believe that in our society, wizards and witches would be classified as civilians." Naruto added. Sakura frowned.

"Maybe not civilians, Naruto, but maybe similar to Samurai." Naruto thought for a moment before nodding.

"Well, can you give us a small demonstration?" Luna asked from the Ravenclaw table, staring at the ninja in interest.

"I am sure you will see some of our techniques eventually, but for now, we believe it's better to keep our tricks up our sleeve." Naruto responded, grinning slyly.

"Now, I believe it is time to return to our dinners and be off to bed soon. I'm sure our new guards are hungry from their journey here." Dumbledore interrupted loudly, a twinkle in his eye. Naruto and Sakura put a hand on their bellies and appeared to be sick remembering their journey.

"Never ever using that portkey thing again," Sakura mumbled as they turned and made their way to extra seats at the staff table. Harry grinned as he remembered his own experience with the teleporting device.

"So, what do you think of them?" He asked his friends. Ron had already begun eating like a madman, and glanced up with his mouth full. He seemed about to talk but after catching a glare from Hermione swallowed first before answering.

"They're bloody brilliant! I mean, that Sasuke guy called Malfoy Mr. Ferret!" His friends grinned at the memory, but then Hermione frowned.

"But he was right, sort of. How are they supposed to protect all of us without magic?"

"Come on, Hermione. You know what they said. They have a few tricks of their own." Harry defended. Hermione shot him an irritated glare.

"But _what_ tricks? They made it seem like they could do something like magic but not magic. It makes no sense! And they basically said they think they're better than us!" She ranted, frustrated.

"That's not what we said, Bushyhair-san." Said a voice behind her. Everyone around them glanced up in surprise, and Hermione twirled around in her seat to find Naruto standing a foot away. Up close, Harry could see that his eyes were a bright blue color, and his whisker marks on his cheeks were even more prominent than he realized. They seemed to be part of his skin, not just marker. Naruto didn't seem mad, but Hermione's cheeks grew pink.

"All that we meant was that you are to be protected. In our society, shinobi are very common and are mostly the fighters and protectors. If a civilian wants good protection, they hire shinobi. We did not mean to say we are better than you, simply that we are better at fighting and protecting."

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you." She stammered, looking down at her lap. Naruto merely smiled.

"No harm done Bushyhair-san."

"My name is Hermione Granger." Naruto nodded and committed her name to memory. Ron spluttered, looking back and forth from Naruto to the now vacant seat at the staff table.

"Bloody hell! How did you- how- when did you get here!"

"How did you even hear her?" Harry asked, eyes wide. Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"It was not difficult to hear you talking. We have very good hearing. As for how I got here…" He scratched his head. "I'm not sure how to explain it to you." He shrugged his shoulders, then his eyes lit up. "Hey, do you know if they serve ramen here?" Every on looker blinked at the abrupt subject change.

"What's ramen?" Lavender asked from a little down the table. Naruto turned to her with wide eyes.

"How do you not know what ramen is? It's the best food in the entire world, given to us by Kami himself!" Lavender was taken aback.

"Um.."

"It's a type of noodle soup." Hermione supplied. Naruto turned to her, his eyes wide.

"You know what ramen is? Yes! Do they serve it here?" She frowned.

"I'm not sure...they haven't before." Naruto hung his head in dejection.

"You could ask the house elves in the kitchen to make you some," Fred and George chorused. Hermione glared at them, grumbling something under her breath. Naruto's head shot up, but before he could ask the brothers anything, Sakura appeared by his side and began dragging him back to the staff table.

"No! Sakura-chan! I was just about to find out where they could make me ramen!" The gryffindors watched Sakura's retreating back and could here her growl at at her captain.

"Be more professional! We're Jōnin, not Genin." Harry turned to look at his friends, his eyes still wide.

"Well...that was...interesting." Ron nodded mutely and Hermione looked down at her food. She then looked up at Harry and Ron, determination in her features.

"I-" She was cut off by her best friends.

"You need to go to the library." She frowned but quickly finished eating. She then collected her bags and scurried out of the grand hall. Harry and Ron exchanged glances, before Ron shrugged and they concentrated on finishing their own food.

The next day the guards were going to be visiting their classes, and there were bound to be some more interesting experiences to come.

* * *

 **Yeah, so staff reactions come next chapter! I can't wait either!**

 **j3didestroyer: I will try to make the chapters longer, but it really depends on my time and where I think would be a good ending/transition.**

 **See y'all next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Yo! I'm back already! I want to thank everyone again for reviewing, subscribing to alerts, and favoriting this story! It means a lot! I will address a I think one review at the end of the chapter, but for now, enjoy reading! I'm not extremely satisfied with this chapter, but more exciting things will begin next chapter, I promise.**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or One Pi- wait, wrong fandom. I don't own Harry Potter.**

 **Chapter 6**

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke's eyes widened a bit when the food magically appeared on the platters in front of them. Ignoring the stares from the students and the staff members, they scooped small portions of everything on their plates. Everything looked so interesting and foreign, but they didn't want to upset their stomachs on the first day. It took about five minutes before the interrogation began.

"So, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, was it?" Asked the strict looking elderly woman seated next to Sakura. Naruto grumbled under his breath before placing a couple coins into Sakura's waiting hand. Sasuke said nothing as he passed his money down to her as well.

"I'm Minerva Mcgonagall, the Transfigurations teacher here at Hogwarts." She introduced after puffing in indignance at the money exchange. "I'm also the head of Gryffindor." The three shinobi turned their full attention to her.

"Gryffindor? What's that?" Naruto asked. Professor McGonagall straightened as she got into her teacher mode.

"Ah, that's right. You don't know about the Houses. Well, allow me to explain." The ninja stared at her, wondering why she had felt the need to tell them she was going to answer their question instead of just simply responding with the question. "Upon arrival here as first years, the students get sorted into one of four Houses; Gryffindor values bravery, daring, nerve, and chivalry, Hufflepuff values hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play, Ravenclaw values intelligence, knowledge, and wit, and Slytherin values ambition, cunning and resourcefulness."

Team seven glanced at each other, Naruto still looking rather confused, Sakura calculating where all her friends would be placed, and Sasuke merely looking vaguely interested.

"I don't get it. How are they sorted?" Naruto asked, frowning. Professor McGonagall turned to look at him straight on.

"Why, the Sorting Hat sorts them of course." All three of them stopped eating to stare at her incredulously.

"A hat sorts them?" Sakura asked. Professor McGonagall nodded, and suddenly Naruto and Sakura straightened. McGonagall watched curiously as all three guards turned to look at the Gryffindor table. Without a word, Naruto disappeared from the table, only to reappear behind Hermione Granger. The staff members looked up in shock.

"I've been meaning to ask, how do you guys do that? It looks sort of like apparating but without the noise, and it's impossible to apparate within the protective barriers." Inquired the extremely short man from farther down the table. When Sakura and Sasuke's attention turned to him, he adjusted his large glasses. "Filius Flitwick, Professor of Charms." He introduced.

"We are not apparating, Flitwick- san. It is a simple shinobi technique called Shushin, or in english, would translate to Body Flicker Technique." Sakura replied.

"Ah, yes, you traditionally speak japanese, so you use honorifics." Commented another teacher from down the table.

"How is it that you know english so well then?" Asked Professor Sprout. Sakura showed them the inside of her arm, where the professors could see a weird design seemingly tattooed on her skin.

"Before we left, our Hokage placed a seal on us that would allow us to fluently speak in your language. I'm not sure how Sasuke can though." She turned to her teammate expectantly.

"Kakashi sensei sent the seal in his letter to me informing me on this mission." The same professor from before, who now identified herself as Septima Vector, spoke up again.

"Sensei? Your Hokage was once your teacher?" They both nodded. Sakura's head whipped towards the Gryffindor table, and she abruptly stood up and shushined away. Blinking, the other teachers went back to their own food and side conversations. Only Professor McGonagall kept her eyes on the ninja.

"Why-" Sasuke cut her off.

"He began asking about ramen again." Sakura soon joined them again, half dragging a complaining Naruto. The head of Gryffindor pursed her lips at the behavior. Once Naruto had stopped grumbling, she saw her chance.

"I must ask, how old are you three? You look barely any older than our seventh years." Naruto didn't even look up from his food and Sasuke remained as stoic as ever, so Sakura sighed, preparing herself for a complicated and most likely rejected explanation.

"We are 18, McGonagall-san." Said professor's eyes widened, and a few other staff conversations halted.

"I fail to see how mere children would be much protection for the school." Came a loud drawl. The greasy black haired man had spoken up for the first time that meal.

"For once, I feel inclined to agree with Professor Snape." Said Professor McGonagall, as she straightened and stared meaningfully down the table at her Headmaster. Sakura called attention back to herself and stared straight into the eyes of Professor McGonagall and Snape, and any other curious eyes.

"I can assure you, all three of us a extremely capable shinobi."

"But will that be enough?" Snape shot back.

"Dumbledore-san requested the best and that's what he got." Sasuke intervened, and the watching eyes swerved toward him.

"You don't mean that out of everyone in your village, you three are the best, do you?" asked Professor McGonagall. Naruto finally looked up from his plate, looking abnormally mellow.

"There are plenty of talented shinobi in our village, McGonagall-san, and yes, we are among the best in our village." He gazed at her for a moment then dropped his eyes to stare at the table. "War will do that to people." He added in a much softer voice, and only Professor McGonagall caught it. Before she could question them further, Dumbledore stood up at brought dinner to an end, dismissing the students to their dorms.

He then turned to the shinobi, who were staring at their now empty and completely clean plates.

"I believe you would like to know where you will be staying before commencing your duties?" He asked. They nodded and followed the Headmaster out of the grand hall, their moods all dampened by the memories of the war.

The curiosities and intricacy of the halls and stairs soon brought them out of their melancholy, as they tried to make sense of the beautiful yet extremely confusing architecture. Finally they stopped in front of a small painting of their sensei. Naruto's mouth dropped in amazement when the painting waved and asked for the password in a monotonous voice. Even Sakura and Sasuke, who had both already accepted most of the oddities in this castle, gazed at the portrait with eyes wide. Dumbledore coughed.

"I'm afraid the spell might have gone a little wrong, I'm afraid. It seems this Kakashi Hatake is a bit apathetic." Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke turned to look at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about? It's like he's really there inside the painting! It's kinda creepy actually." Naruto shivered. "Makes me feel like he'll make me stand out here forever even if I do give him the right password." Sakura and Sasuke nodded in agreement, Sakura glaring at the painting so hard that fake Kakashi began sweating.

"I won't, I swear!" the painting protested. Sasuke moved till he was eye-to-eye with Kakashi, only a few inches away.

"You promise? And you won't mysteriously disappear only to reappear hours later with some lame excuse?" Kakashi rolled his eyes.

"Geez, do my adorable little students think so lowly of me? I'm hurt!" Sasuke narrowed his eyes, his hair shirting a bit to reveal part of his rinnegan. Naruto popped his head next to Sasuke's to glare at the painting.

"One, we aren't little anymore, two, we aren't your students anymore, and three, es we do think so lowly of you! Because it always happens!" Kakashi pouted dramatically. Sakura squeezed her head in on Sasuke's other side.

"And don't give us that bull about being hurt! You know you don't really mean it!"

"Ah, but it really does hurt my feelings. And if you insist I am no longer my students, why do you insist on calling me sensei?"

"Because it sounds better!" Fumed Naruto. Dumbledore cleared his throat behind them, reminding them that he was still there. Naruto and Sakura jumped back, and Sasuke gave the painting one last rinnegan glare before turning around.

"As I was about to inform you, your password is Minato Namikaze." Naruto started at the name, and his two teammates glanced at their captain before gazing at Dumbledore in confusion.

"Your Hokage said it would remind you, Naruto, to keep working towards your dream even on this long mission. I am unsure exactly what this means, but I'm certain you do by the look on your face. Now, I will leave you to get settled in, and I will see you all tomorrow at breakfast!" With that, Dumbledore turned and proceeded down the hall. Soon, he was out of sight. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura exchanged glances before turning back to the painting of their Hokage. Naruto cleared his throat.

"Right, well, Minato Namikaze." He told the painting. Kakashi nodded before sliding to the side, revealing a trap door sized opening. They entered the room beyond, and the painting slide back into place.

"Wow, this place is…" Sakura trailed off, gazing around. On the far wall lay three evenly spaced twin sized beds, with japanese style bedding. On the wall to the right was a door, presumably to a bathroom, and a changing screen quartered off the corner. On the left wall was a counter for their weapons and other supplies and three closets, each with small drawers underneath.

"Looks like we're sharing a room! It'll feel like we're on missions again like when we were genin!" Naruto exclaimed, a grin lighting up his face. Sakura could hold it in no longer. A tick mark appeared on her forehead and she wiped back and punched her friend straight into the thankfully padded walls.

"Idiot! It won't feel like we're on a mission again, we are on a mission again!" She turned away, folding her arms and clenched her jaw.

"I can't believe I'm going to have to deal with him for an entire year with no breaks!" She growled. She then lit up and her entire demeanor changed from being irritated to joyful and carefree as she turned towards Sasuke. He met her eyes.

"Well, at least your here, Sasuke! Now tell me, how did your journey go…" She continued to engage her previously missing teammate as Naruto managed to pop himself out of the dent in the wall that he had created when punched by his inhumanly strong friend.

"Oww…"He muttered, rubbing his rump and gazing wide eyed as the wall warped and the dent disappeared. "I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be an eventful and interesting day. I should probably get to sleep. I'll deal with Shikamaru's paper's in the morning…" With that, he collapsed onto a bed, not even bothering to to unseal his belongings and get changed into nightwear.

* * *

 **shirayuki no scarlet: Omg thank you so much! And thank you for reminding me about Sasuke's arm...I _may_ bring that up at some point. You gave me a good idea, but you'll have to wait and see where I go with that!**

 **See y'all next chapter! Which will probably not be up by tomorrow...Hey! I told you not to get used to me posting stuff everyday! I still just have tons of excitement for this story and a surprisingly low amount of homework, so...**

 **Bye! :-)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi again! Wow, its only been a little more than a week but it feels like I haven't uploaded in a long time. Anyway, you guys asked for longer chapters, and I brought you one! It starts off kind of slowly, and gets darker than I meant it to in the end, but I think it went okay. Tell me if you want even longer chapters. I know there are some fanfic writers out there who write like insanely long chapters and I love that, but they also take forever to update. I would rather have shorter chapters and update frequently, but I do agree that my chapters could have been a little longer. So bear with me guys! I'm still learning! Anyway, that you guys so much for the reviews, especially** TrenchcoatMan. **I know y'all want to read the chapter already, so I will be answering a lot of the stuff he(or she) brought up in their review. Without further adeu...**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either series or characters.**

 **Chapter 7**

The next morning, only Naruto and Sakura showed up for breakfast. Professor McGonagall eyes the empty chair and question his teammates on his whereabouts.

"Oh, he's scouting the castle, getting a feel for the area." Sakura responded.

"Shouldn't you two be doing the same?" They nodded.

"Yes, but we don't have to do it all at once, and besides, this isn't a normal mission with Sasuke here. He has an _eye_ for looking below the surface." Naruto chuckled at his joke, and Sakura grinned as well.

"Besides, he can tell us what he learned later." The professor stared at them curiously for a moment and then hurried to finish her breakfast. Naruto and Sakura gulped down their rice balls.

"I'm going to go talk to Madam Pomfrey this morning, maybe coordinate on medic duties." Sakura said. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, just find *cough* _me_ *cough* when you're done and give me a report. I believe Sasuke will be sitting in on Professor Moody's class this morning once he finishes his rounds and his report. I want you to sit in on Potions with the fourth year Gryffindors and Slytherins. See if you can learn about the social dynamic here." Sakura gave a stiff nod and the two disappeared. The remaining students and staff stared at their vacant seats before shaking their heads, still unused to the ninja's strange technique.

Sakura suppressed a yawn. She had been sitting in the back of the Potions classroom for the past hour, and nothing much had happened besides Professor Snape singling students out, either to bully them or praise them. Of course, this class had given her tons of information on the social structure of the school; Slytherins were evil gits according to the Gryffindors, and the Gryffindors were obnoxious and blood traitors. Those were the main two rival houses, and then everyone else regarded the Ravenclaws as extremely intelligent but kind of stuck up about it, and the Hufflepuffs were wimps. Sakura didn't understand how Hufflepuffs became wimps- it seemed to her that loyalty and hard working should be considered the "good" instead of the Gryffindors who were so courageous they were mostly just reckless and brash. With nothing else to do with her time, she tried to sort her friends.

Starting with herself, she would probably be in Ravenclaw or possibly Hufflepuff. She tried to be very logical about her answers since all of her friends were exceptionally loyal, courageous, smart, and resourceful. They were practically trained to have these traits as shinobi, so she had to dig deeper and find what each person stood out with.

Next, Sasuke would probably be Slytherin. It didn't have anything to do with the silly idea that all Slytherins were evil- Sasuke was no longer one of the bad guys anyway. No, he belonged there due to his obsession to killing Itachi and avenging his clan when he was younger, and his deceptive nature. Both ambition and cunning/deceptiveness were Slytherin traits.

Naruto… she decided to skip him till last.

Ino could be Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, like Sakura, but neither of those fit right. She decided Ino probably fit with Hufflepuff the best, but a side of Hufflepuff that was usually disregarded and ignored.

Choji would be Gryffindor, because he was extremely brave and would do anything to save and protect his friends.

Shikamaru would be Ravenclaw, no doubt. True, a virtue of Ravenclaw was a passion for learning and some could argue that Shika was too lazy, but in fact he greatly valued knowledge and nowadays he hadn't said "such a drag" in a while.

Hinata… Gryffindor? She was very brave when facing her fears now, and she had come a long way from her shy beginnings, but she also had the Hufflepuff values of working hard to become stronger, and her unwavering loyalty to Naruto. She was a Gryffapuff, Sakura decided.

Kiba, Gryffindor. There was no other place for him.

Shino. Well, she didn't actually know him very well, as he kind of disappeared into the background, but maybe Slytherin. His jutsu's kind of relied on their sneakiness to get close enough to the target, and his bugs had proven on more than one occasion to be quite adaptable.

Tenten was Gryffindor.

Lee, hm, Hufflepuff. Definitely. Sakura cringed slightly as she remembered the endless training he would do to prove himself and work extremely hard.

Kakashi...okay, she wouldn't do anyone else outside of her inside circle. Including all of her friends would take an entire book.

Naruto. Slytherin. Totally. Sure, he was extremely brave and steadfast in his beliefs, and he worked tirelessly to prove his worth and improve his abilities, so he could fit with Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. Leaving Ravenclaw out of this. However, he exhibited the SLytherin traits the most. He was one of the most resourceful people she knew. He was nicknamed Konoha's number one most unpredictable knuckleheaded ninja for Kami's sake! While perhaps not especially cunning, he could hide his emotions when he didn't want people knowing what he was feeling, and put a mask on. Finally, his ambition. Ever since he was old enough to understand people's reactions, he had been doing whatever he could to gain the village's approval, and that later warped into an undying ambition to become Hokage. Then, he wouldn't let up when Sasuke left the village, and his entire motto was not giving up until you've reached your goal. Slytherin.

Sakura was pulled from her thoughts by a loud yelp in the classroom. Her eyes immediately focused on a brown-haired boy clutching his hand, face twisted in pain and fear from the teacher glaring down at him. She was moving before anyone blinked, automatically analyzing the severity of the wound. Once she had done so, she removed some herbs from her pouch, and, ignoring the stares from the students and grumpy teacher, treated and bandaged the boy's hand. Then the bell rang and she gave a sigh of relief, not wanting to have to face Snape afterwards. She raced from the classroom and reached out her chakra to locate the nearest Naruto clone. She turned down a hallway and bumped into him, and then gave her report. Her captain gave her a large smile in return, followed by a smug one when he boasted how "the boss" was stuck doing paperwork while the clones got to meet and reprimand the students, along with explore this interesting castle. Then the clone dispelled itself and she decided to head to the library to learn more about the history of the school and the wizarding world.

Later that day, Naruto glanced at the clock on his desk and gladly leap out of his chair.

"Yes! I can finally have some fun!" He exclaimed as he stretched. He had been sitting in the chair for a long time, with a few breaks here and there, so when it finally came time for his classroom inspection, he gladly took the opportunity to blank tedious paper work out of his mind. He twisted in his spot, using the stretch to double as a quick survey of the room.

"Hmm...I have Moody's class to go to. I think Sasuke got out of the recently; maybe he can tell me about it in his report. Now, where is he…"

"Dobe, don't you use shadow clones for your paperwork too? It shouldn't have taken so long and with as much complaining." Naruto whipped his head towards the corner of the room, where he could see Sasuke emerging from the shadows. He glared at his best friend.

"One, I do use Shadow clones, and even then, the amount of work Shikamaru and everyone else gives me is despicable! They know I can do Shadow clones so they give me ten times the amount of work than normal! I mean, why am _I_ the one grading Academy student! Iruka-sensei is just using this as an opportunity to slack off!" Somewhere far away, several people currently gorging themselves and relaxing with friends over not having to worry about work all sneezed simultaneously. They stared at each other for a second before shrugging and returning to their partying, and in some cases, getting completely wasted. Back with Naruto…

"And two, why didn't you use the actual entrance to our room? Scared of Kakashi-sensei now?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blonde, then sighed and closed his eyes, his mouth twitching into a small smile.

"The paper work is good practise for you, although I am concerned about Iruka giving you his work."

"See! Thank you!"

'However, I am more concerned about the grades of the children from being graded by the dead last then I am about your work load."

"Hey! I'm not-"

"And I suppose I didn't use the entrance because I didn't feel like it. That is all." Naruto pouted dramatically, glaring.

"Oh I know you're scared of the painting. You're just too proud to admit it."

"As if."

"You know I'm right."

"Whatever."

"Admit it!"

"I won't admit to anything!"

"BOY'S! Stop acting like four year olds for once!" Naruto and Sasuke, whose faces had gotten close to each other during their glaring contest, instantly straightened and whirled to attention. Naruto gave a small sigh of relief that they hadn't repeated the...incident from all those years ago. Sakura stood glaring at them in the door/painting-way.

"Uh oh. Sakura-chan is in one of _those_ moods." Naruto whispered, and Sasuke raised an amused eyebrow at him. Naruto made a mental note to complete catch him up later. A tick appeared on Sakura's forehead, but as soon as she saw Sasuke grinning at her lightly, she instantly calmed down. She walked farther into the room, and the two boys relaxed now that she didn't appear to be mad anymore. When she reached a spot right in front of her teammates, she took a deep breath in, then out. Then she turned on Naruto.

"Okay Naruto! Get any needed information out of Sasuke about your class and then get your ass there! It's almost time for the class to begin!" Naruto tensed again from the sudden attention and gave her a stiff nod.

He relaxed again only after she walked off to sit on her bed and pull out a notebook. He turned to Sasuke, giving him an expectant look. Sasuke smirked and then obliged.

"Okay. Well, Moody is an interesting teacher, I'll give him that. He sort of reminds me of Kakashi-sensei in a way, when he was being a completely insufferable sensei at the very beginning."

"Hey, I heard that!" Came a shout from across the room. They whirled around to see the painting Kakashi now occupying the inside painting frame on the entrance.

"You can come in here too!" Naruto shouted. Kakashi grinned and stuck up two previously non existent fingers in a peace sign. Sakura growled from the bed and Naruto and Sasuke went back to their conversation, ignoring the loud noises now occupying the other side of the room.

"Anyway, he seems to truly want to prepare the students for dangerous occasion, however, there's something...off about him." Naruto cocked his head in interest.

"Oh really? Like what? His eye?" Sasuke hesitated for a second.

"Yes, but it's not just that. His eye can see through anything, so that would give him an extremely huge advantage over anyone in this castle, or anywhere really, and with his background, he can claim paranoia of a retired Auror for sneaking around on his own business."

"So you think he could be a spy?" Naruto asked, face now serious.

"I'm not sure. I don't want to jump to conclusions, especially when we don't yet know enough about the culture and magic." Naruto nodded.

"Okay, but do some investigating. While you are on that, I'm going to assign you with learning about each of the professors, as well. We want to be safe, just in case, and subjecting all of the teachers to the same treatment will take off suspicion. I should go to class now, but I think I am starting to have a strategy plan for the rest of the year. I will discuss it with you guys when I come back." Sasuke nodded, and then quickly took hold of Naruto's arm with his one remaining one before his friend left.

"And Naruto, you be careful too. I don't know the full extent of that eye's power, so try not to interact too much with Kurama." Naruto looked down at his stomach, then nodded. Sasuke let go and Naruto disappeared through the open door. Sasuke looked around the room and saw Sakura was gone as well, though he could feel her chakra racing down the corridor. Judging by the empty painting, she was chasing after Kakashi. Sasuke sighed, smiling a bit, and then went to go find her. Maybe she could catch him up on everything that happened in Konoha before and after the war. Besides, it would be nice to just sit down and talk with her, especially now that she wouldn't fawn over his every word.

Naruto jumped out of the nearest window and ran along the wall to reach to Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. For a ninja, this was the fastest and least complicated way of navigating the school, at least in the case of the window classrooms. He silently and quickly opened the window and slipped into the classroom, closing the window after him. Fortunately, the bell had just rung, so students were still settling in a chatting. No one noticed as he slinked to the back of the room and sat down in an empty chair.

Suddenly, the door flew open, and the peg legged professor limped in. The classroom quieted immediately.

Naruto saw the man's eye swirve first to Harry Potter, who was sitting close to the front, and then back to the classroom to him. The grisled professor waved at the textbooks on the students' desks.

"Put those away. You won't need them." There was a small rush of noise as the students happily obliged. When the noise had settled down, Moody continued.

"Happy you could join us, Mr. Uzumaki. I saw Mr. Uchiha in here earlier, too. Have an interest in my class?" Students whipped around in their seats, shouting exclamations of surprise when they saw their grinning blonde haired guard.

"First, just call me Naruto. I sound too old with Mr. Uzumaki. And as for your class, well, of course we find a class dedicated to defense interesting. I believe this class is probably the one of the closest to a class we would have back in the Academy." He responded easily. Moody ginned.

"Past tense, huh? When did you graduate?" Naruto's smile got even wider.

"Oh, most of us graduated when we were 12."

"What?!" The students exploded, but the loudest by far came from Hermione Granger.

"Hermione-san, why is that so surprising?" The class quieted as eyes swerved to a now indecisive looking Hermione. She seemed to have conflicting emotions of embarrassment, outrage, and jealousy.

"Well, it's just that I find it hard to believe you could get a sufficient enough of an education to graduate by age 12. Generally once you graduate, you would go to another school or be off on your own, and that is much too young of an age to be alone." Naruto's eyes became downcast as he remembered all those lonely days in his apartment or on the swing in the park watching other children running up to their parents.

"Well, in our society, we become shinobi when we graduate from the Academy, whenever that is, and by extension, we become legal adults when we become shinobi. However, when we first graduate, we get put into teams of two other genin, the lowest level shinobi, and one jounin sensei. Our sensei looks out for us and takes lead in the low level missions, and then when we get better, we can try to take the chunin exams. And no, most of us are not alone when we graduate. Most genin and even chunin live with their parents or in their clan compound if they are clan members, and some shinobi even live with their family until they get married, if they do, or die." The class had become completely silent now, all eyes on him.

"And the others?" Harry asked hesitantly. Naruto raised his eyes to look the boy directly in the eyes.

"We do not have orphanages, and no one wants to take in the children that are all alone. We live in our own apartments, and live off the money we get from the mission." The room began to get noisy again, most of the class now chattering excitedly about the idea that children could get money from jobs. Only a few had caught that Naruto had used "we" instead of continuing with the "they". He still hadn't broken eye contact with Harry, and soon, the younger boy was the one to break the connection. Moody smack his pegleg on the floor to bring the attention back to him.

As he went along with the class, Naruto watched carefully from the back. He tried to take his mind off his lonely memories by entrancing himself in the interesting class before him. Then, the professor began talking about the three Unforgivable curses. The Imperious curse was interesting, and kind of creeped him out. It would be bad news if a ninja was taken control over, but from what he heard, it would be hard for that to happen. Ninja were supposed to have strong wills, to resist torture, so Naruto merely took note and dispelled it to the back of his mind.

The cruciatus curse made Naruto's eyes widen, but not from horror.

"Ibiki would love to get his hands on that spell." He muttered to himself, a couple eyes turned, as well as Moody's and the golden trio's, but then Moody continued with the lesson.

"Right...anyone know any others?" Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.

Several people looked uneasily around at her, but Naruto just kept watching, ready for another display of magic.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra...the Killing Curse."

He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.

"Avada Kedavra!" He roared, and in a flash of green light, the spider collapsed on the desk, limp. The classroom was dead silent. Suddenly Moody's eye spun to the back of the classroom.

"Yes Mr. Uzumaki?" Everyone turned in their seats to see a very confused looking Naruto.

"Well, what makes that the worst one?" Everyone blinked at him, before gaping.

"What do you mean why is that the worst one?!" Hermione screeched, Ron echoing closely behind. Moody silenced the classroom to hear Naruto's response.

"Well, it seems to me that it's the most forgivable one."

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Moody asked, growling slightly. Naruto didn't seem to notice.

"Well, the imperious curse would force you to do anything, and so it would be the worst possible thing to have to watch yourself slit your friends and families throat without being able to protect them, and the cruciatus would allow for a torturer to go on with tremendous pain for days, due to its lack of physical harm. So really, the killing curse is the most peaceful curse, because you just die, no pain or anything. I can imagine thousands of worse deaths." The classroom was dead silent, the atmosphere gaining a morbid and haunting feel. Several of the students brought their hands to their mouths in shock, Hermione included. Harry and Ron gaped.

"Blimey, that's one dark way to look at it." Ron muttered, his jaw still slack. Naruto tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"I guess that's not the way wizards and witches see it, huh?" He asked. Several still shocked and slightly nauseous face nodded. The ninja then bounced in his chair, grinning.

"Well then, don't mind me. Just continue with the lesson!" The spell on the classroom was broken, but throughout the rest of the class, everyone was in much more dampened and depressed moods. Naruto saw Hermione glance over at him, several times during the class, but was confused why instead of looking upon him with horror and anger, all he saw were looks of pity and worry. The bell rang, and Naruto hightailed it out of the classroom, leaving before anyone could come up and talk with him. He needed to talk to Sakura and Sasuke.

* * *

 **Actually sorry I don't really have time to write it all out, so I'll go over it in the next update. If you guys pm me I'll respond though. That you all for favoriting and following! It means so much to me!**

 **Yeah...Peace!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Yay! I'm back! Okay, so I have a lot to say in this author's note. First, I want to thank everyone who favorited, followed, and most of all reviewed! It means a lot to me! Also, I got my first negative critique! I now feel like an official fanfic writer! On that note, I will only accept constructive criticism, no flames. Flames I will just laugh off and disregard, so please don't bother. To the guest who sent me the review, I hope I addressed some of your concerns in this chapter. That said, I will admit I only read a little bit of the manga, so I will be using my anime knowledge and will _not_ read all of those chapters just to get the right phrasing. Please just try to live with my terminology, or else, don't read this fic. I really tried to come up with a good theory, and I even did extensive research to try and help me develope it, but if anyone has anymore ideas or concerns, let me know! I am open to suggestions. This author's note is already pretty long, so I will answer TrenchcoatMan's points at the bottom. I was really excited for this chapter, and though the beginning feels a little iffy to me, I hope you guys like it. Yes, there is a time skip, and it's not that I'm lazy, I just knew that a lot of you _*cough*_ me _*cough*_ were anxious for this part. Also, to clarify, this is _not_ going to be a NarutoHermione fic. All relationships are cannon, though I probably won't venture into romance too much. With that, on with the show! Err...story!**

 **Chapter 8**

Students crowded around the board in their common rooms, chattering with excitement.

¨Yes! They're finally coming!" Harry cheered. Ron and Hermione nodded in anticipation.

"Hey, didn't Dumbledore mention something about the other schools also hiring shinobi?" Ron asked.

"Yep!" The trio spun around to see Naruto grinning widely.

"Blimey, mate! Would you stop sneaking up in people like that! All you guys do it!" Ron reprimanded. Naruto blinked.

"I wasn't trying to sneak up on you. You were just too unaware of your surroundings." The glared at the captain.

"Well, so do you know anything about the other ninja? From what I understand, ninja are very different and unique. Are they from your village?" Hermione asked in fast procession, changing the subject. Naruto frowned at the curious girl.

The past couple of months she had been a headache for them, constantly trying to pry more information out of them about the ninja villages, customs, abilities, secrets, and about their personal lives. She seemed particularly interested and concerned that they were mercenaries, and had been the first one to realize after some time that they had taken lives for money. The fact that they had killed before seemed to shock and horrify the wizards, even the staff. It had thoroughly confused him, amazed Sakura that they hadn't thought of that immediately, and annoyed Sasuke. They had had to be scarce for a while, and even now they had only remained in the background as guards, and eventually the residents of the massive school got used to them. They had mingled here and there, but had to be careful to avoid the constant questions on their lives and abilities. Many seemed skeptical they could actually protect them, but the ninja didn't really care.

Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"Dumbledore-san didn't know exactly who they are, just that they were from Sunagakure and Kumogakure."

"That's the Sand Village and Cloud Village, right?" Hermione interrupted. Sakura suddenly appeared next to Naruto, causing the wizards to start. They had gotten used to them, but the mysterious appearing and disappearing was still disorienting.

"You've done your research, haven't you." Sakura raised an eyebrow. The trio suddenly looked nervous, the boys shooting withering glances at their friend. Said friend nodded hesitantly, looking down at her feet. Sakura sighed, exchanging an eye roll with her captain. Naruto gave them a concerned smile before disappearing.

"Well, you are correct. From what the Headmaster has told us, Suna shinobi are escorting Beauxbaton and Kumo shinobi are with Durmstrang." She smiled, easing the tension. "I'm quite excited to see who comes myself. I have friends from both villages." Harry, Ron, and Hermione suddenly seemed very interested, completely forgetting their previous apprehensiveness.

"Really? But I though the villages were all on mostly hostile terms." Hermione inquired. Sakura gravitated towards the window, gazing out at the mysterious trees of the Forbidden Forest.

"Yeah, well things change." She smiled, her eyes and voice softening. "All thanks to a certain someone." Harry and Ron opened their mouths to say something, but the bell rang. Sakura straightened, turning around to look at the trio expectantly. She folded her arms.

"Now, I think you three should be off to classes. You may have off the afternoon, but you are still required to attend your morning classes." The common room cleared out quickly, and the trio glanced back before they went through the painting opening.

"I just realized, how did they get in the common room?" Harry asked. Ron and Hermione looked at him with wide eyes.

"Blimey, they're so creepy." Ron shuddered. "I still can't believe they kill. Well maybe Sasuke. But Naruto and Sakura?" He shook his head. Hermione nodded.

"I mean Sakura said she was medic, so I doubt she's actually doing the battling. She probably patches up her teammates and stays out of trouble." Her friends nodded, and then they all set out to their class.

Sasuke watched from the shadows, his lips curving upwards at the thought of Sakura staying out of the fray. How wrong they were. His eyes focused on the classroom they had just entered, and he frowned. Defense Against the Dark Arts. Moody...he was extremely suspicious. He'd tried using his Sharingan to see his worst fear, and surprise surprise it had been Voldemort. That didn't say much, because even if he worked for the menace, he could still be terrified of him. That was mostly the extent he could do with his sharingan, as he didn't have Shisui's ability to place the professor in a genjutsu and interrogate him without him realizing. Even when Sasuke had entered Moody's mind temporarily, he had seen some unusual mind blocks set up, similar to that of Snape's when he had visited the Potions professor's mind. Sasuke had mentioned it to Naruto, who had in turn tried to reach out and sense negative emotion coming from Moody, but the magic in the castle inhibited the ability somehow. It was as if past negative emotions had been echoing through the halls, memories of emotions felt from people in the past. Even Sakura had tried to investigate him, attempting to discover what it was he always drank, but the flask was kept by the man's side at all times, and though she smelled something weird from wafting from it, she didn't have the extensive knowledge of the wizarding potions to be able to identify what he was drinking. So, so far all they could do was place him on a "Severely Suspicious" list, and watch over him with careful eyes. They also had to be wary of his x-ray eye, though it seemed that the eye could not see chakra.

 _Flashback to a week since the had been there_

"So, you want me to see if he has negative emotions?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded. The three of them were in their room, seated on some cushions on the floor, facing each other. Sasuke had just given his report on Moody, and they had been trying to come up with theories on him.

"Why can't we just ask Dumbledore-san?" Naruto asked.

"I've already tried." Sakura sighed. "Well, sort of. I told him we were doing a mandatory investigation on everyone, and asked about Moody since he's a new teacher. Dumbledore-san seemed to trust him greatly, and said that he trusted each and every one of his teachers." Naruto frowned.

"Hmm, but wasn't there that break in at Moody's house right before he got here?"

"Yes, but it was claimed to be a false call. Everyone accepted that it was simply paranoia." Sasuke said.

"Still, that is kind of iffy." Sakura pointed out. Naruto nodded.

"Right. We can't disregard that. Okay, I'll try."

"Wait, Naruto. Don't go into nine-tailed chakra mode. We don't know if Moody can see that. Can you just ask Kurama?" Sakura asked. Naruto nodded.

" _Hey Kurama. Did you hear all that?" Naruto asked. He was now standing in front of a huge red nine-tailed fox. The fox snickered._

" _Of course, Naruto. I_ am _in you, idiot. As for Moody...this castle has too much of a mind of its own. The magic here is too potent, I can't lock down on him in particular. Although, I can give you some information. His eye is made from magic, and can see magic. However, because of this, the magic eye cannot see chakra, including you in chakra form."_

" _How do you know that?" Kurama snorted._

" _In you, I am essentially a chakra entity. I have been around long enough to know that chakra and magic don't mix. That isn't to say wizards can't be affected by chakra or vice versa, simply that location spells or something like Moody's eye won't be able to see or find chakra." Naruto smiled up at the big beast._

" _Thanks Kurama!"_

" _Idiot. Just get back to your team already."_

Naruto opened his eyes, and then proceeded to relay all the information he had gathered.

"So, I guess we have to do this the old fashioned way. Sneaking around and snooping." Sakura said glumly. The boys nodded, and they finished up the rest of their reporting and planning.

 _End Flashback_

Sasuke sighed as he made his way back down the halls, nodding to one of Naruto's clones as he went. While all the staff were cleaning up and preparing the castle, the shinobi also had to prepare. They were currently securing the castle even more than usual, and recovering from the rigorous training they had been doing the past week. Naruto had wanted them all to be in top shape for the arrival of the other schools, and it had been a while since they had all fought together; the war regardless.

He walked into their room, and saw two Naruto's and Sakura on the floor cushion, papers surrounding them. Naruto appeared to be writing a report, and Sakura and the other Naruto were focusing on drawing up more paper seals and bombs, and protection wards. They looked up as he entered, smiling.

"Hey!" Naruto greeted. Sasuke took off his cloak and sat down on a vacant floor cushion.

"I wonder who _will_ be coming with the other schools." Sakura mused, taking a break from drawing a ward. She reached behind her to grab another seal, and unsealed some herbs and mixing bowl.

"Maybe B will come!" Naruto suggested enthusiastically. Sasuke frowned.

"I doubt that. He isn't exactly...low-key, and I don't think this would be the type of mission he would be sent on."

"Oh, right." Naruto dimmed a little.

They continued making preparations, and soon it was time for the schools to arrive.

All the Hogwarts students lined up in front of the school, first years in front. The teachers fussed over them and made sure they looked respectable and proud when the delegations arrived. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke stood in the shadows of the building, making sure to be hidden.

The first to arrive was Beauxbaton. Despite their sensory abilities, the ninja only found them in the sky after one of the students shouted out in surprise, drawing everyone's attention to the correct direction. They all watched in awe as the pegasi drawn carriage the size of a large house descended upon them, getting so close they had to duck their heads and Sakura readied a punch if necessary. Thankfully, it wasn't and the carriage landed on the ground safely.

"Kami, these wizards and witches really like to show off, don't they." Sasuke muttered under his breath. His teammates smirked at him.

"And I suppose you wouldn't want to?" Sakura asked, her voice smug. Sasuke jerked his head away from her.

"That's what I thought!"

"Guys! Look at that woman! She's as big as Hagrid!" Naruto interrupted. They turned their attention back to see the students dressed in pale blue emerging from the carriage after their headmaster.

"That must be Madam Maxime." Sakura whispered. Naruto and Sasuke nodded, and they quickly scoured the scene to see if any shinobi had appeared. Sasuke smirked.

"Guess they don't want to be known until the introductions either." Soon after Beauxbaton had entered the school, Naruto pointed to the lake.

"Guys, I think a ship is rising from the water." Sure enough, a massive skeletal looking ship rose from a sudden whirlpool, the silhouettes of people barely visible in the portholes. Naruto shivered.

"It looks haunted. I hope there aren't any ghosts on it." His two friends turned on him, deadpanning.

"You're kidding me, right? You've been guarding and living in an enormous castle with a mind of its own and moving paintings AND GHOSTS FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS!" Sakura nearly yelled at him. Even though she did so in a stage whisper, Naruto cowered behind his hands, not wanting to face her wrath. He peeked an eye at Sasuke, but even he was staring at him in utter disbelief and exasperation. Sakura gulped down some calming breaths of air, and turned back to watch the Durmstrang delegation make their way off their ship and up towards the castle. Sasuke gave Naruto one last half lidded stare before turning his attention back as well. After a moment, Naruto deemed it safe to rejoin his friends in observation. Thankfully, no one had heard Sakura's outburst. A quick scan told them that the hired shinobi for Durmstrang had also elected to remain unseen until the feast.

"Ugh, that man doesn't feel quite right." Sakura curled her lip up in disdain as she watched Professor Karkaroff greet Dumbledore. Naruto and Sasuke narrowed their eyes on him, but didn't say anything. She was right though. He felt similar to how Snape and Moody felt, though each of them felt a little different. This guy bothered them because he felt more cowardly than the other two.

"Well, I suppose we should move inside too. Everyone else is leaving." Sakura suggested, watching the Hogwarts students swarm through the door, exclamations of happiness arising from the students who had already reached the warmer inside.

No one noticed the three shadows that slipped through the door to the grand hall above their heads, and race along the walls until the shrouded themselves within the flickering candle made shadows above the staff table. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke watched patiently as the tables filled with excited, chattering students. Finally, Dumbledore stood up.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable.

Before we feast, however, it seems our shinobi have been waiting for an introduction." Students suddenly remembered that their guards were not in sight, and began looking around the room. Naruto scoffed.

"Do they really think they'de be able to spot us when we are trying to remain hidden from other shinobi?" He asked quietly. Sakura and Sasuke shrugged, and continued to pay close attention to the scene below them.

"I believe that having all nine of you reveal yourselves at the same time would be acceptable, no?" Of course, no one replied. "Well, then, on my count of three. Three, two, one-" In a blur, nine oddly dressed and accessorized people appeared in front of the staff table.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke stood up, and Naruto and Sakura gasped as they saw who were on the other two team. One of the three girls from the Sand village gasped as well, then grinned.

"Hey Naruto, Sakura… Sasuke. Fancy seeing you three here! I thought you were still on your 'redemption journey'." She asked Sasuke. Sakura grinned.

"Temari! So you're the leader of your team? I thought you were helping Gaara with the paperwork." Temari grinned, an evil glint in her eye.

"I let Kankuro help him instead. I wanted to get into some action!" She brought up her fist to emphasize her excitement. The bushy haired blonde haired girl next to her tugged at her shirt.

"Temari, is that, you know, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke? In the flesh?!" Temari blinked at her friend, then threw her head back and laughed.

"Geez, I'd forgotten how famous you guys are now! Yes, Sen, that's them in the flesh." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, grinning hesitantly. Sakura began blushing, and Sasuke allowed more hair to cover his eyes. Before their other teammate could say anything, the older looking man from the cloud village interrupted.

"You!" He shouted, his eyes burning with hatred as he glared at Sasuke. Everyone jerked towards him, and Sasuke's eyes widened before hardening.

"You...I remember you. You were very loyal to your comrades."

"I don't care if you are a war hero! You are still the man who tortured me to find B's location so you could capture him!" All eyes turned on Sasuke, and Naruto and Sakura lowered their gazes to the floor. Behind the infuriated man, the other cloud shinobi suddenly widened his eyes in worry.

"Oh no! What if they battle right here in the school! Then that would result in the entire place coming down and everyone dying and it would disregard the mission and then Karui and everyone else in the village would kill us and B would disown us! And what if Naruto remembers that I killed him and is mad and then retaliates and then remembers what Karui did to him and then-"

"Shut up Omoi! No one wants to hear your pessimism." Omoi bowed his head, surrendering.

"Yes, Samui."

"Now, Kiyoi, this is not the time to take revenge. We can address this late in private, and you two can work out your differences." Everyone blinked at the commanding blonde woman and her dark skinned and white haired companion. Naruto narrowed his eyes on the two.

"Hey! You two were part of the Kumo team that visited the village after Pain's attack!" He stuck out his bottom lip. "And you wouldn't take me to talk to the Raikage." Samui stared back at the boy, her face apathetic as always.

"Not that it mattered. You found your way to him on your own."

"Geez, this is really _the_ Uzumaki Naruto? I thought he'd be more like his sensei." The final member of the Suna squad whispered under her breath. Temari looked over to her.

"Oh right. You only really met him a couple times before the war, didn't you, Maki. And that was when he was worried about Gaara's death. Yeah, he's actually quite knuckleheaded." Naruto glared over at her.

"Hey!" Sakura nudged him.

"It's true, though. Just admit it already." Naruto collected himself, and glanced back over to where Kiyoi and Sasuke remained in a glaring contest.

"Sometimes I forget you worked for the Akatsuki." He muttered under his breath, and all the shinobi tensed. "Right, how about we do introductions, and then we can deal with some of the other...issues later." He suggested. They all nodded, with the exception of Kiyoi, but he soon relented after Samui placed a hand on his shoulder. They then turned towards the students, who had been watching silently with wide eyes.

* * *

 **Heheh. I actually kept writing, but I thought that was a good place to leave off. Review! That's the only way I can get better and not run out of my own ideas! Now, on to** TrenchcoatMan's **review.**

 **Wow, actually, rereading the review, I guess I already covered most of it. There may be references to Sasuke's lack of arm, but that probably won't get attention too soon. Also, what do you think of my choices for the other shinobi? I know Sen was an anime only character, but I needed someone who didn't personally know team 7 and she kind of had a loose end. She was also a childhood friend of Temari's so, I wanted her to be in it. Same with Kiyoi-I thought his reactions to Sasuke could have some major-crap can't get too spoilery. How do you all think of the length? I'm still trying to find the "perfect medium" of chapter length, and I'm sorry if some of the earlier scenes in the chapter seemed too fillerish. As to how they all compare to Dumbledore and Voldemort- I really have no idea as of yet. I don't want them to be too OP, but at the same time, I think they could definitely hold a candle. Help wanted! Also, how do you guys think everyone will react? As for other paintings...we'll see. I don't want to mess up personalities too much, especially for the older legendary shinobi. Kakashi was relatively easy to write seeing as he's been there since the beginning.**

 **At any rate, how you liked it, and review! Anyone see the most recent episode of Naruto? It was hilarious, but almost a little too...YOUTHFUL for me. Almost. I love Lee. Geez, I talk/write a lot. See y'all next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Gomen'nasai! I really meant to get this out on Monday but I had a weird workload suddenly. So, I read your comments (btw I read _all_ of the reviews and they _all_ get me hyperactive with excitement-much to the annoyance of my best friend, who has to deal with my ranting and jumbled excited words(sorry Jenna!)) and I think I put some of your concerns to bed. I may or may not have originally planned this chapter * _cough*_ that definitely means NO* _cough*_ but I kind of like the direction it went and I think is very important to the story. I love keeping the golden trio on their toes. Enough with my babbling. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either series, obviously. Just love them to death.**

 **Chapter 9**

Harry watched on in confusion as the shinobi interacted with each other. He leaned over to his friends.

"What's going on?" He whispered, as the shinobi seemed to come to an agreement and turn to face the rest of the hall.

"I don't know mate, I don't know." Ron shook his head. Harry glanced over to see Hermione. She had her eyes glued to the scene before them, seeming to analyze every interaction. Before the guards could speak, however, Dumbledore cleared his throat from the staff table.

"Pardon me, shinobi, but it appears that whatever was allowing you to speak our language momentarily malfunctioned in the presence of other native speakers if your language." It seemed as if the entire hall let out a breath, some sighs thankful, others annoyed. The ninja glanced at each other for a second, before the blonde girl threw back her head again and barked out a laugh. Harry saw Sakura think for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"Well, I suppose then our reactions just now would have been very confusing. We were actually just about to put away our differences for the moment and introduce ourselves." Sakura explained, her clear voice easily carrying across the large hall. At the staff table, Madam Maxime raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Veel dis be a problem?" Harry had to struggle a bit to understand her through her rolled r's and throaty e's. Naruto turned around and gave her a large smile.

"It shouldn't get in the way too much. I'm sure we can sort it out later. Don't worry. It won't compromise our abilities to protect all of you." Professor Karkaroff narrowed his eyes.

"I know we all agreed to hire ninja, but I am still skeptical on your abilities. You haven't displayed any yet. So how are we to know if you actually possess any?" The oldest looking blonde woman stepped towards him.

"With all due respect, Karkaroff-san, that is a good sign." He waved his hand toward to.

"Whatever. Please return to the introductions, Samui." The brown haired girl muttered something under her breath, and the youngest blonde girl by her side nudged her. Naruto stepped forward first.

"Right, so my name is Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf Village, and I am the Captain of the team currently protecting Hogwarts." Harry could tell that some of the new students from the other schools were analyzing him skeptically, especially focusing on his bandaged arm. Now that he looked at all of them, it seemed as if Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were among the youngest looking shinobi, with the exception of maybe the shorter blonde of the team of three girls. Sakura stepped forward next.

"I'm Sakura Haruno of the Hidden Leaf Village. I am also currently one of the Hogwarts guards, and I am only a medic. If you need any first aid, I am the one to call. I can probably get to you faster than your medi-witch." The blonde woman who had laughed earlier smirked.

"You're all pretty lucky, here. Sakura is probably the best damn medic you'll find, with maybe the exception of her sensei." Sakura blushed slightly, and Sasuke stepped forward.

"Sasuke Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf Village. Hogwarts guard." A couple of the others tensed as he spoke, but nothing else happened. The smirking blonde woman stepped forward.

"Okay, I guess I'll go next. I'm Temari, from the Village Hidden in the Sand. I'm the captain of the team that was hired to protect Beauxbaton Academy." She looked only a little older than Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, and her spiky blonde hair was held back in four different ponytails. She wore mesh armour underneath a sleeveless, purple dress with a purple blouse over it, a purple sash around her waist, hand warmers and leg guards. On either side of her waist hung two greenish pouches, and a black cloth with an engraved metal plate was tied around her forehead. She stepped back and the brown haired girl stepped forward.

"I'm Maki, from the Village Hidden in the Sand, and I'm part of the team guarding Beauxbaton." She wore a sleeveless, backless top and short tight pants, with two lapels on the front and the back. An obi was tied around her waist, as well as tan arm-warmers which extended up to her shoulders, and bandages were around her thighs and ankles. A black pouch hung from her right thigh, and a giant scroll was strapped across her back. The most notable thing about her, however, was her red paint markings on her face and her turban, which was held down by the black cloth with the engraved metal band.

When she stepped back, the last member of her team stepped forward.

"Hi! I'm Sen, from the Village Hidden in the Sand. Team guarding Beauxbaton." Her sandy blonde hair was tied in a ponytail with two strands of hair positioned on each side of her face and two braided strands, and a black cloth with the engraved metal plate was tied around her forehead. She wore sleeveless, backless mesh armour and tight black shorts under a red short, tight, sleeveless wrap dress held together by a tan obi with two fur fans tuck it it, and black sleeves that started from her elbows and went down to wrap around her thumbs. She had loose red legwarmers tied on by string and black sandals, and a black pouch was attached to her right leg.

Next to step up was the older blonde woman. She bowed politely, her face remaining emotionless.

"I am Samui, of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. I am the captain of the team protecting Durmstrang." She wore a very low-cut outfit that displayed her sizeable cleavage, with mesh armour underneath, a short skirt and red hand guards, high boots, and some sort of whitish leather armor that covered her stomach only. She had some sort of sword strapped horizontally on her back.

The darker skinned man introduced himself after she was finished.

"I'm Omoi of the Village Hidden in the Clouds." He wore an overlong shirt with a hood, with red bandage hand guards, shin guards, baggy black pants tied tighter with string, and a black forehead protector along with a flak jacket. A long red sword was strapped to his back.

The last, and oldest looking shinobi stepped forward.

"I am Kiyoi Yotsuki, of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Part of the Durmstrang team." He wore what seemed to be a black, baggy full body suit, with a white flak jacket and white string winding up his legs, and black sandals. A black bandana was tied around his head, complete with an engraved metal plate on a white cloth on his forehead.

"Right, now that introductions are out of the way, I suggest that we now comenze our feast!" Dumbledore announced. The ninja made their way to the staff table and sat down at the end. The noise in the room elevated as the food appeared on the dishes, and Harry glanced around the room, marvelling at all the new guests.

"Okay, so what really happened there?" He asked Hermione. She looked up from her food, and after sending Ron a disapproving and disgusted look, focused on Harry.

"Well, I couldn't exactly tell because I don't speak their language, but-"

"Oh come on 'Mione! You're smart enough to be able to figure it out even without knowing their language!" Ron interrupted, thankfully swallowing beforehand. Hermione blushed, but continued.

"Thank you Ron, but I can only tell you how people feel about each other, not why. It seems as though most everyone knows Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, and Naruto and Sakura are quite friendly with...I think her name was Temari? Anyway, Omoi was very nervous and worried about something, maybe he wronged Naruto in the past or something? Samui definitely is his superior, and is also familiar with Naruto and maybe Sakura, but on a business level. Now, Kiyoi was definitely mad at Sasuke, for reasons that everyone knew- maybe a dark past." She took a deep breath. "What I found most interesting was not Kiyoi's reaction, because they are from different villages and all so there is most likely tension between the different villages, but the fact that they all seemed to know Naruto, and perhaps Sasuke and Sakura, at least by name, if not personally. Therefore it stands to reason that they are famous or at least relatively well known, however for what, I am not sure." Harry and Ron gaped at her with wide eyes, and even Neville, Dean, Seamus, Ginny, and Fred and George had turned to stare.

"Blimey Hermione! I asked for what you thought, not for an essay!" Harry managed to choke out. Hermione suddenly seemed to notice the stares and became very interested in her mashed potatoes.

"That is what I thought," She muttered quietly.

"What do you think they're famous for?" Ginny asked, sliding closer to her friend. Hermione shrugged.

"I can't say for sure. I don't know enough about their culture to be able to figure out if it is merely because they are elite ninja at their young age or if elite ninja in general just become known after a while, or for something else. Harry, Ronald, close your mouths already. You're attracting flies and attention." The boys promptly shut their mouths.

"Do you think they would tell me if I asked?' Ron asked, diving back into his turkey. Harry shrugged.

"I mean, Naruto and Sakura haven't really given anything away yet, and Sasuke is just...Sasuke. Maybe if you asked one of the others? Temari seems nice, or any of the other girls in her team." Harry said, glancing up at the staff table. Naruto and Sasuke sat at the end, Sasuke the farthest away from anyone else. Sakura sat on the corner next to Naruto, and was chatting animatedly with Temari. Sen and Maki were attempting to strike up a conversation with Naruto, but he seemed oddly demure and was having a low almost one sided conversation with Sasuke. If anything, he just seemed to be trying to get away from the girl's attention. The Kumo team sat farther down the table, Kiyoi sitting as far away as possible from Sasuke, and Omoi talking with the teachers the most; Samui only responding when directly talked to.

"I know there are more of them now, but I'm still skeptical they can actually protect us if something bad happened." Seamus remarked, also staring at the guards.

"Well, I think Samui was right when she said that we are lucky they haven't needed to reveal their abilities. It means that nothing bad has happened, and hopefully nothing _will_ happen." Neville said. Hermione huffed.

"When has Harry's luck ever been that good?"

Later that evening Harry, Hermione, and Ron were walking back to their common room when they heard a commotion down the hall.

"That sounds like the guards! What do you think is happening?" Harry asked. Hermione looked troubled.

"I don't know. They're speaking in their own language."

"Come on! Let's take a quick look." Ron suggested.

"Ronald! That's spying! We shouldn't do that!"

"Quick! They're coming closer! They sound mad, do you want to be caught?" Ron whispered. Hermione glared at him and Harry rolled his eyes and pulled his friends into the shadows around the corner. He fumbled around in his robe before he produced his invisibility cloak.

"Quick! Put it on and don't make a sound!" Once they were all under and crouching closer to the floor, Hermione took out her wand.

"'Mione, what are you doing?" Ron asked.

"Shush! I've been working on a translation spell. It isn't quite finished, but at least we'll be able to understand a little bit!" She responded quietly, and then muttered a few words with a swish of her wand. Suddenly the words sounded clearer.

"-work with him!" Came Kiyoi's furious voice.

"Calm_! You know he's_same _ used to be!" Naruto's voice was low and agreeable.

"You _ what he did? He _ me to find _ B! Then he _ me for not giving away my _ whereabouts! I don't _ _ he's reformed or some _ hero! _ he's still a monster!"

"If you _ fight me _, all you have to _ _ _." Sasuke's voice was low and smooth, effectively silencing the angry yells.

"Sasuke, you don't _ _ do that. _ _ war, people _ _ differences. We can _ _ peaceful _ to-"

"No Naruto. This _ not _ battle. I _ what I _, and now I _ repent _ my actions."

"But you were-"

"Stop giving excuses."

"I'll fight you. Tonight _ _ forbidden woods. Do you _ _ _ or can we do it now?" Kiyoi's voice interrupted.

"Now."

"I'm going to get Sakura." Naruto muttered. There came the sound of a window opening and then closing, and when Harry, Hermione, and Ron peaked around the corner, there was no one there.

"What-" Harry began, but was cut off by Hermione.

"I think they're planning to fight in the forbidden forest tonight!"

"You mean like right now?" Ron asked. Hermione nodded.

"How do you reckon they got out?"

"There isn't enough time to think about it right now! Are we going to go watch or not?" Hermione exclaimed. Her friends stared at her in amazement.

" _You_ want to sneak out and do something against the school rules?!" Ron asked.

"This could be the only time we can find out more about their pasts and abilities! It seems like the invisibility cloak works, and with my spell we only have to fill in the blanks!" Harry and Ron shared a glance.

"Um, sure, but how are we going to find them?" Harry asked.

"Well, they said they'll be in the forbidden forest. I'm sure they won't go in too far, and they're fighting will probably be loud enough to hear. If it comes down to it, we could always just try a spell." They nodded, and together they made their way down the floors of the castle and out into the woods.

30 minutes later, they stood in a small clearing not too far into the woods.

"Where could they be?!" Hermione growled in frustration.

"Why not try a spe-" Ron was cut off by a light BOOM! Coming from deeper in the forest.

"I bet that's them. Hurry!" Harry whispered, and they hurried after him. When they got closer, the hid under the invisibility cloak once again. After they made sure they were completely covered, they creeped to the edge of the clearing.

When the scene became clear enough, they had to stifle gasps. It seemed that the fight had already been in motion for a while and was nearing its end. Small craters littered the clearing, and trees and bushes had been strung all over the place. In the middle stood a panting and battered Kiyoi, holding his arm and seemingly about to fall to the ground. There was a flicker of motion and Sasuke appeared a few feet away from him, with his back to the wizards. His cloak was missing, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione could see her wore a light blue baggy long sleeved shirt and dark pants, with tall black sandals and a sword sheath strapped to his back, the long sword hanging from his hand. Wind blew through the clearing and his clothing strained against his body, his left sleeve whipping back and forth like a flag. Other than a few rips in his clothing, he looked unharmed and as calm and reserved as ever. Hermione let out a quiet gasp.

"I think...I think he's missing his left arm." She whispered. Harry's and Ron's eyes widened as they came to the same realization. Suddenly, Sasuke turned his head so his ear was pointing towards them. Had he heard them? If he had, his attention was returned to Kiyoi before he could follow through on his suspicion.

"How...how are you so strong?" The older man ground out. "So this is the power of a second generation sanin, huh?" Sasuke walked over to the injured man, staring down at him. With a groan, Kiyoi finally collapsed on the ground.

"Do it. Kill me already." Sasuke continued to stare down at the man with an unreadable face. Harry, Hermione, and Ron's eyes widened. Was he really going to _murder_ him? Though their eyes were glued to the ominous scene before them, Ron caught a glimpse of movement off to the side. He swiveled his head, and nudged his friends to follow his line of sight.

Just in the tree line of the clearing stood the rest of the ninja, silently watching. Most of their faces were either impassive, awe struck, or in Temari's case, smirking. The movement Ron had seen was Sakura stepping forward, her brows furrowed in worry. Of what, the golden trio could only guess. Naruto stepped forward too, but only to put an arm out in front of Sakura. She turned to look at him, but he kept his gaze on Sasuke. After what seemed to be some sort of wordless communication between the two, Sakura released her tense posture, and then commenced watching the scene with an impassive expression. A flash of light turned the trio's attention once again on Sasuke, who to their horror, was lifting his sword. Hermione buried her head in her hand, and Ron placed a comforting arm around her. The boys turned their bodies away, however they couldn't tear their eyes away. Sasuke began to lower his sword, and their jaws clenched.

" _Slinggg!"_ Their mouths opened in shock and relief. Kiyoi lifted his head, and saw Sasuke turn away from him, his sword now safely returned to its scarbarb.

"Why?" The fallen man croaked out. Sakura raced from the trees and knelt down next to him, and placed her now glowing green hands on his back. Heedless of the medic's actions, Kiyoi continued to stare at Sasuke. "Why did you not just kill me?" Sasuke stopped walking.

"What I did to you was unforgivable, however now I am no longer that person. I now serve a greater, better purpose. Killing you would not achieve anything, and it would go against what I have attempting to achieve during my journey." Naruto stepped from the trees and gave Kiyoi a fleeting glance before heading after Sasuke.

Harry motioned for them to start heading back to the castle, but as they were turning, his eyes latched onto Sakura. She was now bandaging Kiyoi's arm, staring down at her work intently, but Harry could see something else. She was smiling. Just before he tore his gaze away, a single tear slide down her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away before it could drip down on her patient.

* * *

 **So tell me what y'all think! Every review counts towards annoying my besty! Also, and I say this again...I think...all relationships are cannon, with the exception of maybe a couple I might make up. That means that I'm not breaking up and switching around cannon pairings, okay?**

 **Damn, it's hard to find a good balance of team seven praising and still keeping it mysterious. Tell me which way you think I should go. I personally enjoy the fics where their fame isn't completely overplayed but also at least discussed a bit, at least enough to get the students interested and still on their toes, so that's what I'm currently trying to do. On that note, will always take suggestions into consideration. And now I'm just trying to come up with things to keep writing, and it's getting repetitive, so I'll stop now.**

 **See ya next time! P.s. I'm going for a weekend vacation to a cabin in the woods where there may or may not be wifi, but I will try to keep writing if anything on word and hopefully have it up by Monday night. Just don't be surprised if it's not up.**

 **Bye for real now!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ahhh! I'm so sorry this update it so late! I actually had half of the chapter written in March, but I got writers block, and then had to focus on AP's and two extremely stressful, long papers at the same time. Actually, I finally turned in the final draft for one of them yesterday, and the final draft for the second one is due in two weeks, so sorry if my update schedule is kind of terrible during that time. I will _try_ to have another chapter out soon, but like for this one, I don't want to give you half-baked chapters. Also, this next chapter has parts from the book at the end, but I took some stuff out and put some stuff in, so it's still important to read to catch some details. I tried to change it up enough that it wasn't straight copying. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or Harry Potter.**

 **Chapter 10**

The next morning, the golden trio were acting oddly subdued. They ate their breakfast in silence, with Ron even pushing his sausage around his plate before scarfing it down. Hermione had retreated back in her books now more than ever. Harry glanced up to the staff table, and froze when he locked eyes with a certain ninja. Sasuke's one visible eye burrowed into his own, made even more ominous by the shinobi's impassive face. For a quick second, Harry swore he caught a flash of red before he ripped his gaze back to his plate. He flinch as a hand was placed on his own.

"You alright Harry?" Hermione asked, her brows furrowed in concern. Ron had stopped eating and was staring at him with eyes widened slightly.

"Blimey mate, calm down." Harry realized he was panting. He took a deep breath in and calmed his racing heart.

"Yeah, I'm okay now." Ron glanced up at the staff table as well, but the shinobi were all either wrapped in conversation or eating in silence.

"Do you reckon they know?" He asked, but jerked his hands up in surrender at Hermione's face.

"Do you remember the first day? Naruto said he could hear us from the table!"

"Okay, okay! Blimey Hermione. I get it. Later." Hermione shot him one last warning glare before returning to her book.

"What are you reading?" Harry asked hesitantly. Ron shot him a glance that said 'don't get her started!' Instead of answering, their friend raised her book so they could see the title. The History of the Elemental Nations. It was a surprisingly thin book.

"Really 'Mione?" Ron asked. The girl rolled her eyes and began packing up.

"Come on. We can talk about this later. We're going to be late for class." They nodded and followed her out, Ron scooping up one more mouthful of eggs.

After breakfast, all of the guards met up in team seven's room. When the other two teams entered, they found new doorways had appeared, leading to two other rooms laid out similarly to the original room. They explored a bit and found that each of the other rooms also led to the hallway themselves, protected by paintings of their own Kage's. Naruto and Temari stared at the painting of Gaara, their eyes glued to his frowning face, before suddenly doubling over in laughter.

"Oh! Kami!" Temari choked out in between breaths.

"How are you liking your new friends Gaara?" Naruto laughed. The other paintings had taken interest in their new neighbor, and had made their way towards him. Currently, he was being squashed against the ample chests of a couple women, and a small knight on a horse was poking him in the arm with a javelin. The pale green eye lined eyes glared out at the hysteric pair.

"I hate friends." He ground out in his deep monotonous voice, only succeeding in causing more laughter. Sakura poked her head out of the painting-door.

"Be quiet, would ya!" She reprimanded, then caught a glance at the young Kazekage's dilemma. She covered her mouth, but failed to contain her laughter. Before Gaara's glare could center on her, she collapsed back through the entrance. Apparently, once inside, she let loose, as they could hear her out in the hall. Temari wiped her eyes and began to calm down, and soon Naruto calmed down as well. They went back into the room for their meeting, meeting up with the rest of the guards, who had finished settling in. They paid no attention to the growls of anger coming from the Kazekage.

They went back to team sevens room, and settled into comfortable positions.

"So, first things first. Have you two gotten over your differences last night?" Maki asked, staring pointedly at Sasuke and Kiyoi. Sasuke fixed her with his impassive face, and she quickly looked at Kiyoi, who stared at the floor.

"I will be able to complete this mission with my full ability." The Cloud ninja vowed, finally looking at her. He pointedly avoided looking at Sasuke. Maki sighed. Well, at least it was better than nothing. Samui turned to Sakura.

"And Kiyoi is fully healed?" Sakura nodded.

"He still has a few flesh wounds, but nothing life threatening or even debilitating." Sen side glanced her.

"If Sakura was the one tending him, then no doubt he's all better." Sakura blushed, but Sen continued, turning her entire body to face her.

"I think we took the chunin exams together. My team ran into team Gai and were defeated, but I wish we could've ran into each other at some point." She smiled and Sakura blushed some more, smiling back.

"Thanks! I would've liked to run into you as well! I hope we can find a time to get to know each other more during this mission." She turned to the rest of the group. "That goes for everyone. I know most of you, but it was during a time of war and hostility, and situations were different. This is likely one of the first major missions in which teams from three different villages are working together since the war, and I think it would be in the best interest of all of us and our villages to get along and make friends." There were a few moments of silence before Naruto jumped in.

"Yeah! What she said, but in less diplomatic terms! And just so everyone knows, I don't hold blame on anyone for doing something bad to me in the past. I also hope that everyone else can settle their issues with one another in more peaceful ways than fighting, although we do need to find a time and place to continue training." He trailed off, lost in his own mind. Sasuke nudged him in the side.

"Dobe, I don't need you to fight my own battles for me." Naruto grinned at him uncaringly, and Sasuke looked away.

"Anyway, what happened with those three fourth years you mentioned earlier?" Temari asked. Sasuke nodded.

"While I Kiyoi and I battled last night, I thought I sensed the presence of others watching, but it seemed to be muffled somehow. Naruto and I did some investigating later, and our best guess was it was Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger. They meant no ill intent, just the usual curiosity they and the other students display normally. I am sure all of you also experienced this at your own schools." Heads nodded, and he let Sakura take over.

"Be careful around those three though. While I'm sure most of you have heard your own fair share about Harry, Hermione is one of the brightest witches in the school and also the most curious. No doubt it was her idea to spy on us last night, aided by the penchant for mischief influenced by Harry and Ron. Other than that, they are rather nice students, as are many of the students here." Everyone nodded. Naruto finished off the report for Hogwarts.

"I'm not sure how they do things at your schools, but at Hogwarts the students are divided into four Houses…" He explained the system at Hogwarts, and who was friendlier and who were the people to look out for. "I also want to warn you about a couple professors. Moody, the professor of Defense against the Dark Arts has a magical eye that can see through solid objects and 360 degrees. We did background checks of all the professors and his seemed rather impressive, but there is something about him that seems...off. Snape, the potions professor in also vouched for by Professor Dumbledore, even more so than Moody, but he's very strict, biased towards his House, and even mean to students of the other Houses. Don't interfere with him unless the circumstance is necessary. Oh yeah! And the Weasley twins are famous around here for their pranks, so be wary." He blinked as his eyes roamed the deadpanning faces of the shinobi before him. "What?" Temari surged forward and grabbed him by his shirt, startling him.

"Who are you and where has the real irresponsible, bratty, prankster, annoying Naruto gone!" She demanded. Behind her, everyone except Sasuke, and Sakura nodded their heads. Sakura just giggled and watched on. Naruto waved his arms in surrender.

"I'm me! I'm me!" Temari narrowed her eyes, but then let go of him.

"It's true, it's really him." Sakura assured them, still grinning. "He's the captain of the team, so he's been doing a lot of paperwork and decision making since we've been here, so I think he's slowing becoming more responsible." Naruto nodded vigorously.

"Yep! See? I'm still the real me, just more mature!" Sakura lightly punched him on the head(well, lightly for her. He still slammed against the floor).

"Idiot! I said slowly becoming more responsible! I didn't say anything about you being more mature!"

"Owwww!..." The other ninja exchanged glances, then burst out laughing.

After classes the golden trio made their way down to the library, trying to avoid any of the guards. When they finally got there, they scurried over to the farthest and most concealed table to talk.

"So...what do you think?" Ron asked. The boys turned to Hermione, who was already taking out a notebook and leafing through it.

"Well, I've been keeping note of everything odd about them since they've been here, and any other details we've managed to find out." Harry coughed into his hand, thinking that some stronger words could have been used to describe their investigative process. Hermione continued. "So first, they are rather young, only a year older than the seventh years. Despite their assurances they are talented, they haven't displayed too much and aren't wizards." Ron interjected.

"Yeah, how could they defend us all from anything if they aren't wizards?" Hermione nodded.

"That brings me to the next point. There are only three of them. Well, really there's nine of them now, but they said they were sufficient with only the three of them. Then, apparently they are among the best in their village, which considering their age is rather unlikely. Naruto is the captain, despite him seeming the least serious and he seems to be everywhere in the castle; Sakura is a medic who heals with glowing green hands and is apparently extremely strong(though we have yet to see exactly how strong); and Sasuke is the most anti-social and mysterious one, who apparently has no arm. Judging from the other shinobi's reactions when they first met in the great hall, I've deduced that something happened in the past with Sasuke-something bad. Though the tense and negative atmosphere at dinner could have been mainly due to village rivalries, I highly doubt it. Nearly everyone seemed on edge because of Sasuke, yet they treated Naruto and Sakura with respect and familiarity. Except for Omoi, thought that seems to merely be his personality. Then, when we," she lowered her voice, "spied on them last night, I tried to piece together some information. The were talking as if Sasuke had some dark past where he did bad things, specifically to Kiyoi. He called him a monster, then said something about Sasuke being some sort of hero. Naruto also stuck up for him and is obviously quite close with Sasuke, as is Sakura, and it seems Sasuke is attempting to repent for his actions. Obviously they are all rather strong, seeing those craters, but Sasuke is stronger than Kiyoi. Extremely strong. Kiyoi called him...a second generation legendary sanin, I believe." Hermione took a deep breath and then let it out again. Harry and Ron stared at her.

"What?" She asked defensively. They shook their heads.

"Um...bloody hell, 'Mione! That was both bloody brilliant and...I don't know the word for it. That was like you were barfing up information!" Hermione glared at Ron, who suddenly shrunk, waving his arms in surrender. Harry intervened.

"Hermione, what you came up with was great, but what are you trying to accomplish with everything?" Hermione's cheeks turned pink.

"Umm...well, y-you know...they seem rather suspicious and all...and they could put us in even more danger...and- oh I don't know, Harry!" She burst out.

"Your investigative work is quite impressive, Granger-san." The three spun around but saw no one. When they turned back, they nearly leaped in the air. Temari was leaning back in the fourth chair at their table, watching their reactions with calm amusement.

"Wh-what are you doing here?!" Ron squeaked out. She barked a laugh and leaned in.

"Oh, I was listening in on a very interesting report. I must say, Granger-san, with the right training, you would make an excellent shinobi." The three calmed their breathing enough, but they were all still on edge. Hermione turned pink again, but managed to try and squeeze more information out of the guard.

"You're Temari, right?" The ninja nodded. "What do you mean I would be an excellent shinobi?"

"Well, you are very intelligent and an amazing information gatherer." The boys knew that although Hermione soaked up the praise, she was already soaking up the new information about shinobi's.

"How...how do you all know each other?" Harry asked. "I mean, uh, it seemed all of you knew each other but you're from other villages, right?" Temari rolled her eyes.

"Nice try, even though I heard everything you were just whispering about." The three gulped. "It is true we are all from different villages, but that doesn't mean we haven't interacted before. And not all of us know each other- I just happen to be closer to Sakura and Naruto because we met a while ago and became close friends, and also thanks to mutual friends." It could have been the lighting, but her cheeks suddenly seemed a bit pinker than normal. She suddenly stood up from the table. "Well, I believe I should be going now. We have to prepare for the choosing ceremony after all." She winked at them and then flickered into thin air.

Hermione sighed, closing her mouth, her attempt to get more information out of the shinobi thwarted.

"Well, that was no help at all," Ron stated. His friends nodded in agreement.

"Come on, it's almost time for dinner to start, and then after, we have the choosing." Harry reminded them.

"You guys go along; I'm going to stay here and learn what I can from this book." Hermione waved her hand at them, her nose already stuck in her book. The boys rolled their eyes and then headed out of the library.

It was finally the time of the choosing ceremony from the Goblet of Fire. Naruto was still feeling a little sick from the rich food he'd stuffed down his throat during the feast. His face must have been a little green because Sakura rolled her eyes at him and then discreetly channeled a bit of healing chakra into him.

"Can't have our most powerful sensory ninja being distracted during the choosing, now can we?" She whispered to him. He gave her a small smile in return, before they both turned back to pay attention to what Dumbledore was saying.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The shinobi tensed in the new light, trying to get their bearings. It didn't take very long. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting...A few people kept checking their watches…

All of the shinobi that had been hired had been in the war, therefore they were a lot more sensitive to waves of energy than the shinobi who had not joined the fight. This automatically gave them some sensory abilities even when they generally wouldn't have had any previously. That's why all of them in the Grand Hall felt the wave of energy that suddenly swelled from the goblet. Naruto- and he knew Sasuke, Maki, and Kiyoi as well (those with the strongest sensory abilities)- felt the surge even stronger than the rest, and was almost left reeling.

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it - the whole room gasped. Naruto rolled his eyes at the theatrics, and he was sure the rest of the shinobi did as well.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

Viktor turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber. Naruto saw out of the corner of his eyes that Samui motioned for Omoi to follow him.

"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"

The clapping and chatting died down, much to Naruto's relief. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"

The girl who so resembled a veela got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.

Temari snorted behind Naruto, and when he turned to see what she was snorting at, he mentally sweat dropped. Two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads on their arms.

When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, Sen following close behind, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement Naruto could taste it. He smiled, enjoying the light atmosphere, before focussing on the cup once more. The Hogwarts champion next…

And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.

"The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"

Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers' table. Naruto made eye contact with Sasuke, and they came to a silent decision. Sakura interpreted their decision and followed after Cedric, glancing back at the rest of them one more time. The applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again. During this time, Naruto and Sasuke briefly signed to the rest of the guards their suspicions. They nodded back, having come up with the same misgivings. Something was about to happen. Naruto, Sasuke, Maki, and Kiyoi stilled, focusing on their sensory abilities, reaching out to cover the entire Grand Hall. Naruto closed his eyes so the students couldn't see the change in his pupils.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real -"

But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him.

The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. A flare of negative emotions drew Naruto's attention. He briefly opened his eyes to try and catch the offender- it came from the staff table. Now just who was it! He continued to try and narrow down the flare to determine the specific person.

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment.

He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. Everyone excluding the shinobi. Temari and Samui had caught on and turned their attention to the staff table as well, hoping to find clues in their posture and facial expressions.

And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out -

"Harry Potter."

For that moment, Harry couldn't do anything. Couldn't feel, think, or move. He was too shocked.

Suddenly, he had a weird impulse to look up towards the guards. His eyes drifted away from Dumbledore and suddenly he caught eye contact with Naruto. Another type of shock rippled through Harry's body- this time arousing every sense in his body as adrenaline pumped through his veins.

The guard's eyes had changed. They were no longer brilliant blue. They were now yellow-pinkish and his pupils had changed to form crosses.

 _Just what_ was _Naruto?_

* * *

 **So, what did y'all think? I hoped the copied section was changed up enough. Review! I take praise and constructive criticism; no flames (although thankfully that hasn't been too much of a problem. Thanks guys!) . Preferably worshipping at my feet :-)**

 **Ttyl! (As a wise *cough* person once told me- never say good bye, especially on text)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ah, procrastination is a terrible thing, but at least I get this story written. Did you know there is no word for procrastination in German? Fun fact, I don't know. Well, anyway, I have a lot due this week so I'm hoping to get the next chapter in by next Monday as well, be we'll see. Happy Memorial Day to all ya'll here in the US! So nice to be out of school for the day. Anyway, on to the longest chapter I've written! (With the help of J.K Rowling...)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either of the two series'.**

 **Chapter 11**

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore's voice echoed louder in the Great Hall, and Harry broke his gaze away from Naruto's. Shaking, he stood up from his table, and began walking towards the door behind the staff table. He was painfully aware of how loud his footsteps sounded in the silent room, as well of the eyes that were drilling holes in his back. As soon as he reached the staff table, whispers erupted behind him.

He reached the door, opening it, only vaguely feeling the presence of someone behind him. The faces in the portraits turned to look at him as he entered. He saw a wizened witch flit out of the frame of her picture and into the one next to it, which contained a wizard with a walrus mustache. The wizened witch started whispering in his ear.

Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory, and Fleur Delacour were grouped around the fire,They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Krum, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the other two. Cedric was standing with his hands behind his back, staring into the fire. Fleur Delacour looked around when Harry walked in and threw back her sheet of long, silvery hair.

"What is it?" she said. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"

She thought he had come to deliver a message. Harry didn't know how to explain what had just happened. Harry saw the shinobi guards standing off to the side. Sakura had been leaning on the wall, but when he entered, she straightened. She made eye contact with him and understanding seemed to dawn on her. She turned to her fellow guards and quietly said something to them in their native language.

Something moved behind him and he remembered with a start that someone had followed him through the door. Turning around, he saw it was Naruto. An uncommonly grim Naruto. A shiver ran down Harry's spine at the seriousness set in the usually cheerful guards face, and he suddenly recalled Naruto's eyes just a moment ago. A quick glance showed him they were back to their normal striking blue color.

There was a sound of scurrying feet behind him, and Ludo Bagman entered the room. He took Harry by the arm and led him forward.

"Extraordinary!" he muttered, squeezing Harry's arm. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen...lady," he added, approaching the fireside and addressing the other three, ignoring the ninja off to the side. "May I introduce - incredible though it may seem - the fourth Triwizard champion?"

Viktor Krum straightened up. His surly face darkened as he surveyed Harry. Cedric looked nonplussed. He looked from Bagman to Harry and back again as though sure he must have misheard what Bagman had said. Fleur Delacour, however, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman."

"Joke?" Bagman repeated, bewildered. "No, no, not at all! Harry's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!"

Krum's thick eyebrows contracted slightly. Cedric was still looking politely bewildered. Fleur frowned.

"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said contemptuously to Bagman. "'E cannot compete. 'E is too young."

"How is it even possible?" Sen asked, stepping forward. "I thought there was an age line protecting the Goblet, so no one under the age of 17 could cross."

"Well...it is amazing," said Bagman, rubbing his smooth chin and smiling down at Harry. "But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an _extra_ safety measure. Besides that we employed you nine, and we have multiple other security measures besides. And as his name's come out of the goblet...I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking out at this stage...It's down in the rules, you're obliged...Harry will just have to do the best he -"

The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Samui, Kiyoi, Temari, Maki, and Sasuke. Harry heard the buzzing of the hundreds of students on the other side of the wall, before Professor McGonagall closed the door.

"Madame Maxime!" said Fleur at once, striding over to her headmistress. "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!"

Harry felt a small surge of anger at being called a little boy. Was this how the guards felt at being underestimated due to their young age?

Madame Maxime had drawn herself up to her full, and considerable, height. The top of her handsome head brushed the candle-filled chandelier, and her gigantic black-satin bosom swelled. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Sakura roll her eyes.

"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" she said imperiously.

"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," said Professor Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions - or have I not read the rules carefully enough?"

He gave a short and nasty laugh.

"C'est impossible," said Madame Maxime, whose enormous hand with its many superb opals was resting upon Fleur's shoulder. "'Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most injust."

"Everything in life is unjust." Sasuke interjected. Harry started at the quiet voice of the usually silent guard. Everyone paused and looked at him. "Actually, I think the fact that this tournament was designed to be 'fair' is what makes it unfair. From what I understand, the purpose of the tournament is not just for sport but also to prepare students for the real world, and making the tournament 'fair' isn't going to truly prepare them."

Surprisingly, Kiyoi was the one to step forward.

"He's right," he muttered darkly, shooting the mysterious raven haired man a quick glare. "We have a similar test back home, and the point _is_ to cheat. The problem in this situation is not whether it is fair that Hogwarts has two champions, rather that the tasks were likely planned with the skillset of a seventh year in mind, and Harry four years inexperienced."

Silence reigned the room, and Harry felt a lump in his throat form as he fully realized what that meant.

"Still-" Karkaroff broke the silence first, turning to Dumbledore "-Potter wasn't even supposed to be able to compete. The age line was placed in order to prevent that from occurring. Did you assist him because you plan to help him through the tasks and gain more glory for your school?" He smiled got wider and his eyes grew colder.

"It's no one's fault but Potter's, Karkaroff," said Snape softly. His black eyes were alight with malice. "Don't go blaming Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here -"

"Thank you, Severus," said Dumbledore firmly, and Snape went quiet, though his eyes still glinted malevolently through his curtain of greasy black hair.

Professor Dumbledore was now looking down at Harry, who looked right back at him, trying to discern the expression of the eyes behind the half-moon spectacles.

"Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" he asked calmly.

"No," said Harry. He was very aware of everybody watching him closely. Snape made a soft noise of impatient disbelief in the shadows.

"Did you ask an older student or a guard to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?" said Professor Dumbledore, ignoring Snape.

"No," said Harry vehemently.

"None of us would have helped him." Naruto's voice was colder than Harry had ever heard it. "Besides, he didn't want to be in the tournament."

"Why not?" cried Madame Maxime. "'e woul' 'ave 'ad eternal glory and money!"

"As Snape said earlier, every year Harry gets pulled into some trouble or other, in addition to being famous simply for living because his parents were murdered, and I know better than anyone that someone can only handle so much. He is enough like me that the only trouble he would willingly get into would be to protect someone, and unless someone is blackmailing him, this tournament does not fit in that category." Again, the room was so silent you could've heard a pin drop. Harry wondered what Naruto meant when he said he would know better than anyone.

"How would you know about Potter's activities in past years, and why should we consider you an authority on the matter?" Karkaroff sneered.

"As for Harry's past, we read the file." Sakura deadpanned. Everyone's head whipped toward her. She was back to leaning against the wall, Temari, Maki, and Sen standing stiffly next to her. "As for Naruto, that is an issue that you don't need nor have the right to know. All you need to know is that our lives are very different from your luxurious and protected lives, and though Naruto can relate to Harry more in particular, all of us have seen the lengths people will go to to get fame and money. We know those types of people. That is our authority on the subject. Some of you might not understand this, but sometimes that's not what people want. Harry already has fame and money. He's had his share of trouble, and he will have more. We can see in his actions and his eyes that he didn't want this, yet he has it."

Maki spoke up after a pause to let Sakura's words sink in.

"I do not understand what we are doing standing around here arguing."

"He could not have crossed the Age Line," said Professor McGonagall sharply. "I am sure we are all agreed on that -"

"Before you say anything, Madame Maxime," Maki interrupted, her eyes freezing Madame Maxime, who had been about to speak, "Dumbledore did not make a mistake with the Age Line. I did a quick check of the Goblet before coming in here. There was a faint presence of someone who was not a student, and they must have been the person who entered Harry without his knowledge." She glanced at Temari, then at the rest of the shinobi before continuing. "It is fortunate we mostly know each other enough that we know each other's skills, so we can quickly adjust our previous guard plans to working on the identity of the perpetrator."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Yes thank you. In the meantime, I do believe we should acertain that Harry can't just back out of being a champion."

"Mr. Crouch...Mr. Bagman," said Karkaroff, his voice unctuous once more, "you are our - er - objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?"

Bagman wiped his round, boyish face with his handkerchief and looked at Mr. Crouch, who was standing outside the circle of the firelight, his face half hidden in shadow. He looked slightly eerie, the half darkness making him look much older, giving him an almost skull-like appearance. When he spoke, however, it was in his usual curt voice.

"We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front," said Bagman, beaming and turning back to Karkaroff and Madame Maxime, as though the matter was now closed.

"I am still sceptical of how much we can truly trust you so called shinobi to be able to protect us, and now you are giving us advice! All of you are only slightly older than the champions themselves, the oldest among you being at most a decade older. I understand things are different for you "back home," but how do you expect us, who are three times your ages, to take to heart your wisdom?" Karkaroff sneered.

"You should pay more attention, Karkaroff," growled a voice from near the door. "There's a reason we hired them. I believe we asked for some of the best in their villages, too. Can you not tell, with all the experience that comes with your mighty age, that they deserve the respect and consideration of their 'wisdom' that you so blatantly disregard? Besides, you can't pull any empty threats of leaving the school or firing your guards. Krum's name was pulled from the Goblet, so he has to compete, and the shinobi were hired for the duration of the Tournament and the year and by the coalition of our schools. Your student and guards are bound by a contract to remain here, convenient, no?"

Moody had just entered the room. He limped toward the fire, and with every right step he took, there was a loud clunk.

"Convenient?" said Karkaroff. "I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."

Harry could tell he was trying to sound disdainful, as though what Moody was saying was barely worth his notice, but his hands gave him away; they had balled themselves into fists.

"Don't you?" said Moody quietly. "It's very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put Potter's name in that goblet knowing he'd have to compete if it came out."

"Evidently, someone 'oo wished to give 'Ogwarts two bites at ze apple!" said Madame Maxime.

"I thought we had already agreed that was not the issue." Temari growled in the corner.

"No one agreed, just listened to your lectures!" Karkaroff shot back. Temari merely rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"I quite agree, Madame Maxime," said Karkaroff, bowing to her. "I shall be lodging complaints with the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards -"

"If anyone's got reason to complain, it's Potter," growled Moody, "but...funny thing...I don't hear him saying a word..."

"Pretty sure that's 'cause none of you will let him get a word in edgewise." Naruto grumbled behind Harry. Harry felt a swell of gratitude for the shinobi- for all the shinobi- for what they had said.

"Ze ninja 'ave already eztablished zere waz zamone 'who placed 'iz name in ze Goblet, but why?" Fleur Delacour asked, stomping her feet.

"Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it," said Moody, with the merest trace of a growl.

An extremely tense silence followed these words. Ludo Bagman, who was looking very anxious indeed, bounced nervously up and down on his feet and said, "Moody, old man...what a thing to say!"

"We all know Professor Moody considers the morning wasted if he hasn't discovered six plots to murder him before lunchtime," said Karkaroff loudly. "Apparently he is now teaching his students to fear assassination too. An odd quality in a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dumbledore, but no doubt you had your reasons."

"It's a good quality for a teacher to have." Omoi spoke up for the first time this evening. "It could save them and their students."

"Unless it's their students that they're afraid is going to assassinate them," Temari muttered. Sen and Sakura burst out laughing, Naruto chuckled behind Harry, and Maki failed to smother her smile but shot her leader a disapproving glance. Everyone else in looked over in confusion, and Harry felt a slight discomfort at what Temari had said. What did that even mean, and why was it so funny?

The laughing died down and Sen gestured with her hand.

"Sorry, hah, continue," Moody stared at them for a bit longer, his eyebrow raised, before continuing.

"Imagining things, am I?" He growled. "Seeing things, eh? It was a skilled witch or wizard who put the boy's name in that goblet..."

"Ah, what evidence is zere of zat?" said Madame Maxime, throwing up her huge hands.

"Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object!" said Moody. "It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament...I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name under a fourth school, to make sure he was the only one in his category..."

"You seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody," said Karkaroff coldly, "and a very ingenious theory it is - though of course, I heard you recently got it into your head that one of your birthday presents contained a cunningly disguised basilisk egg, and smashed it to pieces before realizing it was a carriage clock. So you'll understand if we don't take you entirely seriously..."

Harry felt Naruto tense, and he glanced back Naruto seemed to be in a silent conversation with Sasuke, before turning and having another silent conversation with Sakura across the room. She muttered something to the girls near her, who nodded their heads and Maki quickly pulled out a scroll and scribbled something on it before handing it to Sen. Sen took out a fan from somewhere, and with a flick of her wrist, the scroll was gone. Harry glanced around the room to see where it had gone, but all he could tell was that the other champions had been the only other ones to witness the exchange. Cedric made eye contact with him and raised his eyebrow, but Harry shook his head in confusion.

"There are those who'll turn innocent occasions to their advantage," Moody retorted in a menacing voice, bringing Harry's attention back to the professors' exchange. "It's my job to think the way Dark wizards do, Karkaroff - as you ought to remember…

"Alastor!" said Dumbledore warningly. Harry wondered for a moment whom he was speaking to, but then realized "Mad-Eye" could hardly be Moody's real first name.

Moody fell silent, though still surveying Karkaroff with satisfaction - Karkaroff's face was burning.

"How this situation arose, we do not know," said Dumbledore, speaking to everyone gathered in the room. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. We will have the shinobi look into the matter of _how_ Harry's name got submitted to the Goblet. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. This, therefore, they will do..."

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr -"

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it."

Dumbledore waited, but Madame Maxime did not speak, she merely glared. She wasn't the only one either. Snape looked furious; Karkaroff livid; Bagman, however, looked rather excited.

"Well, shall we crack on, then?" he said, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. "Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we? Barty, want to do the honors?"

Mr. Crouch seemed to come out of a deep reverie.

"Yes," he said, "instructions. Yes...the first task..."

He moved forward into the firelight. Close up, Harry thought he looked ill. There were dark shadows beneath his eyes and a thin, papery look about his wrinkled skin that had not been there at the Quidditch World Cup.

"The first task is designed to test your daring," he told Harry, Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor, "so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard...very important...

"The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges.

"The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers or shinobi to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."

Mr. Crouch turned to look at Dumbledore.

"I think that's all, is it, Albus?"

"I think so," said Dumbledore, who was looking at Mr. Crouch with mild concern. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay at Hogwarts tonight, Barty?"

"No, Dumbledore, I must get back to the Ministry," said Mr. Crouch. "It is a very busy, very difficult time at the moment...I've left young Weatherby in charge...Very enthusiastic...a little overenthusiastic, if truth be told..."

"You'll come and have a drink before you go, at least?" said Dumbledore.

"Come on, Barry, I'm staying!" said Bagman brightly. "It's all happening at Hogwarts now, you know, much more exciting here than at the office!"

"I think not, Ludo," said Crouch with a touch of his old impatience.

"Professor Karkaroff - Madame Maxime - a nightcap?" said Dumbledore.

But Madame Maxime had already put her arm around Fleur's shoulders and was leading her swiftly out of the room. Harry could hear them both talking very fast in French as they went off into the Great Hall. Karkaroff beckoned to Krum, and they, too, exited, though in silence.

"Harry, Cedric, I suggest you go up to bed," said Dumbledore, smiling at both of them. "I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."

Harry glanced at Cedric, who nodded, and they left together. He was aware that most of the shinobi flickered out of the room, with the exception of Naruto, Temari, and Samui, who remained in the room to discuss things with Dumbledore.

The Great Hall was deserted now; the candles had burned low, giving the jagged smiles of the pumpkins an eerie, flickering quality.

"So," said Cedric, with a slight smile. "We're playing against each other again!"

"I s'pose," said Harry. He really couldn't think of anything to say. The inside of his head seemed to be in complete disarray, as though his brain had been ransacked.

"Well...see you, then."

Instead of going up the marble staircase, Cedric headed for a door to its right. Harry stood listening to him going down the stone steps beyond it, then, slowly, he started to climb the marble ones.

"Are you okay Harry?" Harry jumped at the voice. He turned around and saw Sakura standing a step behind him.

"Merlin! Stop just appearing like that!" He exclaimed. Her mouth quirked.

"Sorry. Habit, I guess. And payback; our sensei used to do that to us all the time." She said, gesturing to him to continue walking up the stairs. He did so and she fell into step beside him.

"So, how are you feeling?" She asked again. Harry sighed.

"I dunno- scared, I guess." She nodded.

"About what I suspected. Listen, it's okay for you to feel scared. Know that you will not die during this tournament; that's what we are here for, after all. Lean on your friends, too. You've seen how people have reacted. That's just the beginning. Hermione's smart, she'll reason that you couldn't have put your name in and she will stay by your side. Ron, on the other hand-"

"Ron will stand by me too!" Harry defended angrily. Sakura side glanced him.

"I know that he's a good friend and would stand up for you, but this situation is about the glory and fame. Harry, being a friend of someone famous and of someone known for her smarts, it can't be easy for Ron, especially in a big family like his. He'll be bitter about you being in this Tournament, even if he would normally defend you. You just have to understand what he's going through, okay?"

"You're wrong. He won't care about that!" Harry's voice wobbled slightly.

"Maybe, but I doubt it. Trust me. I grew up in a team with the town prodigy and the idiot loser, but the loser kept surpassing me even when I tried to convince myself I was better than him because of my smarts. Then that loser became the village hero. I can't totally empathize with Ron, but I can enough to know that he's going to feel betrayed and ostracized." They came up to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Sakura turned to face Harry.

"Try not to get too angry, and instead reach out to him. The time leading up to the next task will be terrible if you don't have both your closest friends to help you." Harry didn't meet her striking jade eyes.

"I'll try." He ground out. She smiled sadly, then flickered away.

After she was gone, Harry took a couple seconds to collect himself, then after a deep breath gave the Fat Lady the password.

The blast of noise that met Harry's ears when the portrait opened almost knocked him backward. Next thing he knew, he was being wrenched inside the common room by about a dozen pairs of hands, and was facing the whole of Gryffindor House, all of whom were screaming, applauding, and whistling.

"You should've told us you'd entered!" bellowed Fred; he looked half annoyed, half deeply impressed.

"How did you do it without getting a beard? Brilliant!" roared George.

"I didn't," Harry said. "I don't know how -"

But Angelina had now swooped down upon him; "Oh if it couldn't be me, at least it's a Gryffindor -"

"You'll be able to pay back Diggory for that last Quidditch match, Harry!" shrieked Katie Bell, another of the Gryffindor Chasers.

"We've got food, Harry, come and have some -"

"I'm not hungry, I had enough at the feast -"

But nobody wanted to hear that he wasn't hungry; nobody wanted to hear that he hadn't put his name in the goblet; not one single person seemed to have noticed that he wasn't at all in the mood to celebrate...Lee Jordan had unearthed a Gryffindor banner from somewhere, and he insisted on draping it around Harry like a cloak. Harry couldn't get away; whenever he tried to sidle over to the staircase up to the dormitories, the crowd around him closed ranks, forcing another butterbeer on him, stuffing crisps and peanuts into his hands...Everyone wanted to know how he had done it, how he had tricked Dumbledore's Age Line and managed to get his name into the goblet...

"I didn't," he said, over and over again, "Someone else entered my name."

But for all the notice anyone took, he might just as well not have answered at all.

"I'm tired!" he bellowed finally, after nearly half an hour. "No, seriously, George - I'm going to bed -"

He wanted more than anything to find Ron and Hermione, to find a bit of sanity, but neither of them seemed to be in the common room. Insisting that he needed to sleep, and almost flattening the little Creevey brothers as they attempted to waylay him at the foot of the stairs, Harry managed to shake everyone off and climb up to the dormitory as fast as he could.

To his great relief, he found Ron was lying on his bed in the otherwise empty dormitory, still fully dressed. He looked up when Harry slammed the door behind him.

"Where've you been?" Harry said.

"Oh hello," said Ron.

He was grinning, but it was a very odd, strained sort of grin. Harry suddenly became aware that he was still wearing the scarlet Gryffindor banner that Lee had tied around him. He hastened to take it off, but it was knotted very tightly. Ron lay on the bed without moving, watching Harry struggle to remove it.

"So," he said, when Harry had finally removed the banner and thrown it into a corner. "Congratulations."

"What d'you mean, congratulations?" said Harry, staring at Ron. There was definitely something wrong with the way Ron was smiling: It was more like a grimace. Harry felt a sense of foreboding. _Had Sakura been right?_

"Well...no one else got across the Age Line," said Ron. "Not even Fred and George. What did you use - the Invisibility Cloak?"

"The Invisibility Cloak wouldn't have got me over that line," said Harry slowly.

"Oh right," said Ron. "I thought you might've told me if it was the cloak...because it would've covered both of us, wouldn't it? But you found another way, did you?"

"Listen," said Harry, "I didn't put my name in that goblet. Someone else must've done it."

Ron raised his eyebrows.

"What would they do that for?"

"I dunno," said Harry. He felt it would sound very melodramatic to say, "To kill me."

Ron's eyebrows rose so high that they were in danger of disappearing into his hair.

"It's okay, you know, you can tell me the truth," he said. "If you don't want everyone else to know, fine, but I don't know why you're bothering to lie, you didn't get into trouble for it, did you? That friend of the Fat Lady's, that Violet, she's already told us all Dumbledore's letting you enter. A thousand Galleons prize money, eh? And you don't have to do end-of-year tests either..."

"I didn't put my name in that goblet!" said Harry, starting to feel angry.

"Yeah, okay," said Ron, in exactly the same sceptical tone as Cedric. "Only you said this morning you'd have done it last night, and no one would've seen you...I'm not stupid, you know."

Harry took a deep breath. _Remember what Sakura said. He's feeling betrayed. He wanted the glory, and the money. Control your temper._

"Listen Ron," He said in a much calmer voice. "The guards said they felt traces of someone around the Goblet, someone who wasn't a student. Moody thinks someone entered me with a different school, hoping I'd die in the Tournament. Think about it. Dumbledore said the Tournament hadn't been reinstated for a long time because of the high death rate. Who do you know wants to kill me?"

Ron flinched and was silent for a minute, his hair covering his eyes.

"I...I guess that makes sense…"

"Look, I'll need both yours and Hermione's help to get through the tasks. They were planned with a seventh year skillset in mind, and we've had less than four years of an education. Hermione and I will need help finding information and spells, and you've got a great tactical mind and you've grown up in a wizarding family. You might think of something that we never would have thought of. Please?" Harry sat down on his bed, trying to win his best friend over.

"I guess…" Ron seemed a bit more enthusiastic now, and Harry detected hints of pride in his voice. Just one more push.

"And if I win and don't die I'll buy you a new broom with the money, okay?" Ron's eyes lit up and a smile stretched across his face.

"I believe you, mate! I'm sorry I doubted you before…" Harry waved it off.

"It's okay. It was my bad for starting to get worked up. I'm just happy I've got my two best mates helping me with this now." He smiled, letting out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding.

"Anyway, we should probably get to sleep now; you're probably going to get swarmed tomorrow." Ron pointed out, eyeing the door where loud noises could still be heard. Harry nodded.

"'Night Ron,"

"'Night Harry,"

* * *

 **So, the shinobis' presence is finally starting to change things. I know I used the book a lot, but I think I changed it enough. Review! I love you're opinions and knowing that people are still reading and liking my story!**


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm alive! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry...! Author's note at the bottom, because I know you guys want to just read the chapter.**

 **IMPORTANT. READ THIS. Okay, just a quick note; as I was researching the abilities of all the shinobi I chose, Naruto, Sasuke, and even Sakura have a crap ton of moves that are very powerful, and some of them we know very little about. So, I made lists of each shinobi's abilities that will possibly be used in this story, taking out some of Team 7's (mainly because they probably won't need them at Hogwarts) and I gave some more abilities to the rest of them. I made it make sense though, for the most part I hope. Also, because I believe in balanced teams, Maki and Kiyoi have some sensory abilities, and Sen and Omoi will function as medical ninjas. This note was mainly so y'all wouldn't get too confused over some things that the shinobi do in this chapter that you don't remember them being able to do.**

 **On to the chapter, finally.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Naruto.**

 **Chapter 12**

The next couple of days were terrible, for Harry at least. Everywhere he went around school, people would either be staring at him in awe and adoration, or in pure loathing and distrust. Even the Hufflepuffs! At least he had Ron and Hermione by his side still.

He was very thankful to Sakura that she had given him the advice, and that he had listened. He couldn't imagine what his life would be like without Ron. Especially with the first task fast approaching. He had written to Sirius, using Ron's owl because Hedwig was too recognizable, but had yet to receive anything back. Meanwhile, he had to deal with Potter Stinks badges everywhere he went, champion photographs, and Rita Skeeter. When he finally did receive a letter from Sirius, he was disappointed that it really didn't do anything to qualm his fears and misgivings.

By the time the Hogsmeade trip came around, he was miserable. He walked slightly behind Ron and Hermione, under his cloak. As they made their way to a secluded table in Three Broomsticks, Harry noticed two different groups. Hagrid and Moody sat together at the bar, and a small group of the shinobi were gathered around a small table near his. By now, Harry knew the ninja enough to know it was Sakura, Sasuke, Temari, Sen, and Omoi. Hermione cleared her throat, and Harry brought his attention back to his friends.

"So," she started, pulling out a notebook, "Harry, do you know what you are going to do about the first task?" She angled her body so it would seem like she was talking to Ron, who sat in front of her next to Harry.

"I don't even know what it's going to be, much less have a plan for it!" He said dejectedly.

"What do you know about it?" Ron asked, brows furrowed.

"Um, it's supposed to be a test of bravery, I think."

"So it's possible you won't even have to employ any spells?" Hermione asked.

"The whole tournament is about testing abilities, Hermione." Ron reminded her. "I'm pretty sure he'll have to fight something terrifying or something like that." Hermione sighed.

"You're right." She straightened suddenly, her facial expression changing to one the boys new well. She was in business mode. "Well, that just means we'll have to be prepared for anything. We'll have to make a list of every possible test and then make plans for all of them." Harry and Ron groaned.

"Hermione, that's going to take forever!" Harry protested.

"Well, do you have a different idea?" She asked shortly. He muttered a 'no' under his breath.

"Oh look, Hagrid and Professor Moody are leaving." Ron's voice cut through Harry's depression. As Harry watched, he saw Hagrid and Moody get up to leave. He waved, then remembered that Hagrid couldn't see him. Moody, however, paused, his magical eye on the corner where Harry was sitting. He tapped Hagrid in the small of the back (being unable to reach his shoulder), muttered something to him, and then the pair of them made their way back across the pub toward Harry, Ron and Hermione's table.

"All right, Hermione, Ron?" said Hagrid loudly.

"Hello," said Hermione, smiling back.

"Hey Hagrid, Professor," Ron greeted.

Moody limped around the table and bent down; Harry thought he was reading the notebook, that held Hermione's list for the task, until he muttered, "Nice cloak, Potter."

Harry stared at him in amazement. The large chunk missing from Moody's nose was particularly obvious at a few inches' distance. Moody grinned.

"Can your eye - I mean, can you -?"

"Yeah, it can see through Invisibility Cloaks," Moody said quietly. "And it's come in useful at times, I can tell you."

Hagrid was beaming down at Harry too. Harry knew Hagrid couldn't see him, but Moody had obviously told Hagrid he was there. Hagrid now bent down on the pretext of reading the notebook as well, and said in a whisper so low that only Harry could hear it, "Harry, meet me tonight at midnight at me cabin. Wear that cloak."

Straightening up, Hagrid said loudly, "Nice ter see yeh, Ron and Hermione," winked, and departed. Moody followed him.

"Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?" Harry said, very surprised. His friends blinked towards where he was.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"He wants me to meet him at midnight with my cloak."

"Can I come?" Ron asked. Harry shrugged, then realized they couldn't see him.

"I don't see why not." Ron grinned, and turned to Hermione. She shook her head.

"I'm going to try and start that list. You guys go see what Hagrid wants."

"That's an interesting tool you have there, Harry." The three froze at the soft voice. Harry turned his head to see Sasuke leaning against the wall behind their table, nearly completely concealed in the shadows. His head was bent down, so his eyes were hidden by hair and shadows.

"Ho-how can you see me?" Harry asked. "I mean, I suppose Moody's eye makes sense, but you have no magical eye!" Harry shuddered as the corners of the guards mouth twitched upwards.

"You are correct. I posses no 'magical' eye. I have my own methods. That aside, what did Moody and Hagrid tell you?"

"They didn't tell him anything!" Ron intervened. "They just came to greet Hermione and me."

"You can tell us, you know." Sen said, suddenly sitting in a chair next to Hermione. The wizards and witch jumped.

"Would you all _please_ stop doing that?" Hermione exclaimed, glaring at the slightly older girl beside her. Sen's cheeks turned a little pink.

"We'll try," she muttered.

"Give up, we know they said something." They looked up at Sakura, who was leaning next to Sasuke. Harry noticed they were closer together than they needed to be, and wondered for the first time how romantic shinobi relationships worked.

"Fine." Hermione sighed. The boys glanced at her. "Moody just mentioned being able to see Harry with his eye. That's it." The three shinobi shared a glance, but nodded.

"You three, come to any of us if you see any suspicious behaviors. Any at all." Sasuke ordered. Harry felt intimidated by the mysterious guard.

"Why us three specifically?" Ron asked. Sen giggled.

"We've read your files. You three seem to always find the trouble that happens at this school, so we thought you would probably be the ones wrapped up in it again this year." Harry felt his gut sinking. The way she phrased it meant they had already seen the beginnings of trouble, and of course, he would be in the middle of it. Not for the first time, he asked himself, " _why me?"_

Sakura nodded at them.

"Enjoy the rest of the day, and do _try_ to stay out of trouble. You have enough things to worry about right now, Harry." With that, they were gone. Looking over, Harry saw that they had rejoined Temari and Omoi, and it looked like they had never left. Sakura said something that made Temari's face go red, before Temari said something back that made Sakura and Sasuke straighten, Sakura's face nearly turning the color of her hair, and Sasuke's usually pale face gain some color.

Turning back to his friends, Harry stood up.

"Guys, we should go. If we stay here, we'll probably get another weird vist." The two nodded, and then they all began their trip back to the castle.

The five shinobi watched the two fourth years leave the tavern, Ron holding the door behind him for a little longer than should have been necessary. The interruption was just the topic changer Sakura and Sasuke needed to recover from Temari's blunt remark about their growing closeness. Sakura's face almost went red again simply thinking of the insinuations her friend had made about them. The mere idea was preposterous, not only because it was Sasuke they were talking about, but also because it was a mission and they shared a room with Naruto. She was so unbelievably happy Naruto had decided to remain at the castle to work on paper work instead of accompanying them to the town. If he had been there, he never would have let it go away.

"They didn't tell us everything." Sasuke said, thankfully taking Sakura's mind away from her over creative mind. Sen nodded.

"And they didn't exactly give us new information. We already knew about Moody's eye."

"And I doubt Hagrid would have told them something that would have been important for us to know that we didn't already know." Sakura added.

"Hmm, isn't the dragon transfer happening tonight?" Omoi mused. Temari raised a brow.

"Yes. Why is that important?"

"I've heard that Hagrid is quite close with Harry, and that he has a certain obsession with dragons." Omoi said. Sakura's eyes widened.

"You think Hagrid told Harry about the dragons?" She asked, catching on.

"Whatever it was, I'm sure it was connected to it." Omoi nodded. Temari sighed.

"Well, us team captains are going to be helping with that transfer, and Sasuke's going to be on hand. Sasuke, keep an eye out for him tonight, but don't engage if you discover him." Sasuke nodded.

"He'll need all the help he can get." Sen murmured, her voice weighted. The rest of them nodded in agreement.

"Sen, do you know how the seal will react?" Omoi asked. Sakura's mind flashed back to the trophy room, where Naruto had suddenly had the idea to place a seal on all three of the men on their "main suspects" list at the same time.

Sen shook her head.

"I only helped put it on them with a genjutsu. Maki said that if one of them tries to sabotage the tournament somehow, the seal will somehow mark them. For now it's undetectable. She didn't say how it would react, but we should ask her when we get back to the castle." They nodded. Temari turned to Sasuke.

"Any more leads on the Goblet?" Sasuke shook his head.

"Wizards and Witches have a very small amount of chakra in their body. Like us, as they grow older and their magic develops, their chakra also matures, which is how we knew it was not a student, though that we already suspected. Unfortunately, their chakra levels are low enough that although we were able to figure out it was a matures chakra, it disappeared quickly and got distorted by the high amounts of magic around the Goblet."

"As much as chakra and magic don't have any other effects towards each other, the way magic interferes with your sensing abilities is extremely annoying." Sakura grumbled, a slight whine in her voice.

"True, but it might mean that chakra also interferes with magic tracking as well, which could benefit us." Omoi pointed out.

"That's a good point." Temari said. "We really need to find out more about magic and stuff. Sakura, Sen, and Omoi, you guys should research magic potions, herbs, and plants. I don't care how you split up the work. Especially try to figure out what Moody keeps in his canteen." The three of them nodded. "I need to talk more with Naruto and Samui about the rest of the researching, but for now, I think that's among the most important."

"We should get back soon." Sasuke said, and soon, they were heading back to the castle as well.

* * *

At 12 a.m, Harry and Ron were knocking at Hagrid's door, the cloak hanging from Harry's arm. When Hagrid opened the door, they were surprised to see that Hagrid had cleaned up and slicked back his hair. Harry exchanged a glance with his best friend. _What was Hagrid up to? Why did he look so fancy?_

"Ah, Harry, you brought Ron with yeh!" He smiled at them.

"That won't be a problem, right?" Ron asked timidly. Hagrid smiled.

"O' course not! I'm mighty happy that yer sticking together despite everythin happen'in!" They grinned at each other. "Now, hurry up and get that cloak on." Hagrid instructed. "An' follow me. Stay quiet now."

They followed a few feet behind Hagrid, and soon Madame Maxime had joined Hagrid. Well, that was one mystery solved. Harry and Ron exchanged a sly grin as they saw their friend trying to win the affections of the Beauxbatons headmistress.

Still unsure where they were going, they continued to silently follow the two giant figures into the Forbidden Forest. Ron glanced at the ground nervously.

"We aren't going to see the acromantulas again, right?" He whispered.

"I don't think so Ron," Harry whispered back. Suddenly they heard a loud noise in the distance, and sped up to see the cause. When they did, they froze at the sight.

Naruto, Temari, and Samui were simply standing a few feet away from them, faced towards the dragons. _Dragons_.

"Harry, the first task is dragons!" Ron whispered to him. All Harry could do was nod stiffly, his eyes still fixed on the terrifying, struggling beasts before them.

Suddenly, he felt a pressure in the air, and by Ron's quivering, he could feel it too. Harry's body couldn't move, but his eyes wandered to the shinobi captains. They hadn't moved at all, but the pressure seemed to come from them. Harry's eyes went back to the dragons, who to his surprise had stopped struggling. In fact, it looked like they were as paralyzed by the pressure as he and Ron were.

They stayed that way for a couple of minutes, when at last the pressure petered off. Harry and Ron released a sigh of relief. A quick nudge from Ron signalled that they should head back to the castle, and the two of them gladly scurried away from the scene. Before they were completely out of sight, however, Harry took one look over his shoulder and saw that the three ninja had walked up to the dragons and were easily leading them into cages, the dragons now subdued.

* * *

The morning of the First Task, Harry couldn't concentrate easily. He had a plan, thanks to Ron and Hermione, and he felt better after telling Cedric about the dragons and talking to Sirius. But that didn't change the fact that he was about to fight a _dragon._ He was terrified.

As he got changed into his fighting gear, Ron entered the dorm.

"Harry...you're going to be fine." Harry glanced up from tying his leg guards. "Look, you have a plan no matter which dragon you get, and you even know each dragon's weaknesses!"

"Thanks to you. I wouldn't have even thought about researching the different types of dragons we saw." Ron rolled his eyes.

"Come on Harry, lighten up. If you feel more confident about how you are going to do you'll perform better."

"Perform. Yes, that's what I'm about to do, perform." Ron stood up from his bed, where he had sat down on at some point in their conversation.

"You need to get down there now." Harry felt like the whole atmosphere of the room had flummoxed. Ron kept trying to make him feel better, but then he ruined it with every word he said. At this point, it felt like they were walking to Harry's own funeral.

They navigated the twisting walls and moving staircases in silence. The only noise came from the paintings. As they neared the great door, three blurs raced from the ceiling and came to a stop beside them.

"Harry." The two boy's yelped, their tension making them even more jumpy than usual.

"Blimey, Sakura. Would you _please_ stop _doing_ that!" Ron yelled quietly, his voice sounding suspiciously close to falsetto. Harry automatically grinned, then turned his attention to the three Kunoichi.

Sen and Maki smiled at him, while Sakura just narrowed her eyes.

"Harry, we just wanted to remind you that we will be there to help if something goes wrong." She said, her voice softening. Harry nodded.

"I know. That's what your here for, right?" She smiled and nodded, and turned to Ron.

"I'm very thankful that you two were able to remain friends through all this. I know it isn't easy." Ron nodded back, a gleam in his eyes. Sakura nodded back, then looked at her friends. She then seemed to disappear with a blur. Maki soon followed, but Sen hung back.

"Good luck Harry." She said, then she too disappeared. The two boys glanced at each other and shrugged. They continued out the door and down the slope towards the arena. As they walked, Harry realized he felt lighter, looser, and more confident than he had before.

"Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I may be able to win this after all."

"That's the spirit mate!"

The two boys laughed and raced to meet up with Hermione.

Ron couldn't believe that Harry had gotten the Hungarian Horntail. Out of all the dragons, of course his best friend got the worst one in a random draw.

"Curse Harry's bloody luck," he muttered under his breath, but Hermione heard him from her spot beside him. She looked away from Harry's desperate attempts to stay out of the dragon's reach long enough to slap him on the arm lightly.

"Ron," her warning tone made his shiver on the inside.

"What?" He protested. She glared at him but quickly diverted her attention back to Harry. Ron followed her example.

He watched with eyes wide open as he saw his friend barley miss getting chomped to death. Then nearly crushed into the ground. Then nearly…

"HE GOT THE EGG!" Ron shouted, his voice almost louder than the rest of the roaring crowds put together. Hermione cheered in joy beside him, and the two grinned as large as they could.

Until, predictably, everything went wrong.

 **Third Person PoV:**

Harry was floating on his broom with the golden egg tucked under his arm, just out of the dragon's reach. Even though Harry's task was done, the dragon was not. The Hungarian Horntail kept pulling at her chains, trying to continue attacking the boy who stole her egg.

With a resounding CLINK the chain broke and she lunged after Harry.

"HARRY!" Ron and Hermione yelled. Harry's eyes, which had been wide from shock of having completed the task, went even wider and he jerked his broom away from the dragon in fear.

Then the shinobi jumped into action.

They had been stationed around the arena, not moving while the champions completed the task. Now, Temari, Sen, Samui, and Kiyoi blurred away from the arena to calm the other dragons, who were away from the arena but starting to get agitate by the ruckus the Hortail was making.

 **Harry's PoV:**

Back in the arena, Harry barely avoided a blast of fire from the dragon and almost crashed into the ground, but a blue blue grabbed him from the air and he suddenly found himself in the champions tent with Omoi, a blue electric film fading from around his body. He saw Krum, Fleur, and Cedric sitting on sick beds with wide eyes, disregarding Madam Pomfrey's efforts to get them to rest.

"Ho-how-" He stuttered, but Omoi cut him off.

"Later. For now, show me where you were hurt."

 **Third Person PoV:**

As soon as the dragon got loose, Sasuke unsheathed his sword.

"Sakura!" He shouted. Sakura ran up the wall of the stadium and jumped up the where Sasuke was hovering, landing on his sword just as he swung up. She was launched into the air above the flying dragon, readying her fist with chakra.

 **Naruto's PoV:**

" _Shadow-clone Jutsu!"_ Naruto quickly made a hand sign and suddenly hundred of copies of him were protecting the audience. He glanced up to take a survey of the battle. Harry was out of the way and getting healed by Omoi. The students and teachers were safe for the moment. Sakura was about to punch the dragon. _Sakura. Shit._

"Sakura, remember to punch _softly!"_ He yelled at his teammate. He then glanced around, hoping she had heard him and that she wasn't about to brutally murder the poor mythical beast.

"Maki! Be ready!" He shouted at the cloud ninja.

 **Sasuke's PoV:**

Sakura punched the dragon in between it's wings, lightly (for Sakura) thankfully, and the Horntail slammed into the ground. In less than a second, lengths of cloth were binding the dragon so she couldn't escape, courtesy of Maki.

Sasuke caught Sakura as she fell back to the earth, then he to the front of the dragon.

"She's secure Sasuke," he heard Maki inform him, but he was already directing chakra to his eyes.

" _Sharingan: Genjutsu."_

 **Hermione's PoV:**

The whole thing had taken less than a minute. Hermione watched in horror as Harry began getting chased by the loose dragon, and then suddenly Harry was gone, Naruto poofed into existence in front of her (and she automatically registered that there were in fact hundreds of Naruto's), Sasuke was hovering in midair, Sakura had somehow been able to _punch_ the dragon to the ground (and that was her punching _softly?!),_ Maki had bound the dragon in the cloth she wore on her back, and now Sasuke was controlling the dragon with his eyes. His _red_ eyes. Actually, she could still only see one eye. On top of that, the other shinobi had disappeared to somewhere and she didn't know where.

She hated not knowing things. Well, at least the- what had Naruto said- shadow-clone thing resolved her previous confusion over how Naruto seemed to always be all over the castle. And why the rest of the ninja (read: mainly just Naruto, along with Omoi but Omoi seemed scared about nearly everything) were terrified of Sakura.

Hermione broke out of her thoughts when Ron apparently had had time to process what he'd seen.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL JUST HAPPENED?" Or maybe not. She sighed, glancing around and noticing that nearly everyone else seemed to be as confused/terrified/confused/incredulous/confused/- well, there seemed to be numerous emotions afflicting her fellow classmates. She sighed. It was going to be a long day.

"Where's Harry?" Ron suddenly asked. She whipped her head around to face him.

"I don't kn-there he is!" She had caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and it turned out to be Harry exiting the champions tent with Omoi behind him.

The missing ninja reappeared in the middle of the arena, and Kiyoi immediately bound the dragon in a silver rope of some kind. Maki released her cloth binding and Sasuke's eye faded back into its normal black color.

Hermione observed this as she and Ron raced to meet up with their friend. Hermione tackled him with a hug before Ron could, and over Harry's shoulder Omoi caught her eyes. He nodded once then rejoined his fellow ninja.

"Harry! What happened? How did you just disappear like that? Are you okay?" Questions tumbled out of her, and Harry put his hands up in surrender.

"Hermione, let him breath," Ron said, and she blushed and released her victim.

"But really, what happened." Harry took a deep breath.

"Look. All I know is that Omoi somehow got me out of the way and into the tent, then started healing me. What happened out here? Did Dumbledore or the other professors do something?" Ron and Hermione shook their heads.

"Mate, you missed a lot in that one minute."

"The professors didn't have time to do anything. It was all the shinobi." Hermione informed him. Ron patted Harry's shoulder.

"Come on. We'll tell you everything later. For now, let's go see what you're score is!"

 **Naruto's PoV:**

The plan was only supposed to be implemented in case of an emergency. _Why did everything always have to go wrong?_

Once all the dragon's were secure and subdued, Naruto released his jutsu. Memories flooded his head, mainly of the student's freaking out. He let out a sigh.

"I have to go talk to the headmasters and headmistress." He told his friends, then shushinned up to their box in the stands. Karkaroff, Madame Maxime and Ludo Bagman flinched, subtly, but Naruto still caught it.

"Everyone is safe; you responded marvelously. For that I thank you. I understand you did not want to have to resort to such measures. The only concern I have at this point is the wellbeing of the Hungarian Horntail." The Hogwarts Headmaster seemed to relax over the course of his speaking and that odd gleam of amusement slowly re-appeared in his eyes. Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"Don't worry about the dragon. Sakura already healed her. Thankfully she remembered to punch softer than usual."

"Than _usual?"_ Karkaroff choked, and Madame Maxime furrowed her brows. Naruto grinned.

"Yeah. She's scary." The two nodded, though Naruto suspected they did it subconsciously. "Well, I believe Harry is looking forward to his score now, but you should come to my office later tonight." Dumbledore interrupted. Naruto nodded and bowed quickly before sushinning to the side of the arena, where his teammates had migrated to.

Naruto knew that from now on, everyone in the castle was going to treat them differently, and he wasn't sure if he was ready for that yet. For now, he was happy that Harry was taking the spotlight off of them, even if it was only for a little while.

* * *

 **So this is the author's note. Now, it's been a while, and I kept making my list of things to say in the author's note longer based on the reviews y'all gave me, but it's a memory list and my memory isn't the best so I might miss some things.**

 **First thing: Someone reviewed and said the format was kind of confusing, so I added the line breaks in there for you. I hope they work.**

 **Second thing- oh I'll just make it a paragraph. Full disclosure on a bunch of things. I've had half of this chapter written since August, and the other half planned since July. Also, because I went to so long without writing, I sorta kinda forgot about that exchange Naruto had with the others in the trophy room so I came up with something that would work (the sensory tags) and that might have been my original plan or not, I don't remember. At any rate, hope this cleared some things up. Also, romance in this story will be minimal. The only complete cannon couple in this story at the moment is Sasuke and Sakura, and though I'm fine with them together, I honestly don't truly understand their relationship so it's hard for me to write it. So, minimal romance.**

 **Y'all got you're big shinobi show-off! I tried to make it where they didn't show off too much, but just enough to get people stumped and stuff, so tell me what you guys think!**

 **Also...BIG SORRY for being so late. I've responded to several of you guys about updates and I completely messed up. The most recent promise was before the new year (HAPPY 2018!) but I either didn't have time over my break or I was without wifi. Being without wifi sucked, especially since I had homework I really needed to get done. So, yeah. On that note, my semester isn't over, today was my first day back, I'm a junior in highschool and my teachers are already giving me the 'warning' about upcoming chaos. So, I apologize in advance if it takes me another half a year to update (I will seriously try to update waaaaaaay before then though).**

 **Well, enough of my blabbing. I have to get to homework. Big shout-out to y'all who reviewed and I hope I got most everyone covered in this AN. I respond to reviews and PM's pretty quickly if I receive them at an okay time, so if you have questions, feel free to ask.**

 **Bye!**

 **P.S I think this has been one of my longest chapters so far. Yay. Oh, and sorry about the constant switches in the PoV's. It was the only way I could make it work with the time I had.**

 **P.P.S Sorry for updating the same chapter in the span of a few minutes, but OMG I JUST FOUND OUT THIS STORY WAS ADDED TO TWO COMMUNITIES THAT HAVE A BUNCH OF MY FAVORITE FICS I AM SO HONORED AND HAPPY RIGHT NOW!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Omg guys I'm very sorry for such a late update, and for not keeping some of the individual promises I made you some of y'all in pm's. Well, here's the chapter, finally. I just realized this is chapter 13, so maybe this one was fated to be so late and kinda bad. The chapter kinda...just...happened over the course of several months. I didn't have much of a plan for it (read: no plan whatsoever) and I improvised. Anyway, after enduring several months of my friend's annoying pestering (it feels weird that my friend is reading my fanfic, no joke. I'll call him Water Pest lol) about updating, and me now finally getting something like a break in school work (I passed my super stressful senior presentation that determines if the past four years of suffering through my program were worth it, yay!) I decided to get off my butt (or onto it, seeing as I'm sitting) and finish this chapter. See bottom for final author notes.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than the random ass spell I came up with from old latin (I think) roots.**

 **Chapter 13**

Harry was disappointed. He hadn't gotten to see the ninja fight. He'd been saved by Omoi, but whatever he'd done had been too fast for him to comprehend was was happening. He'd come out of the tent to the varying expressions of his classmates, and everywhere he went, people were talking about Sakura's punch, or the hundred copies of Naruto. Of course, they also whispered about his own performance, but Harry was more interested in the guards. He'd heard enough about himself already to last him three lifetimes. Their abilities were also so different than wand magic.

Harry was nearly carried up to the Gryffindor common room. Fred and George spearheaded the celebration, and soon there was music playing from somewhere, food and drinks had somehow appeared, probably courtesy of the house elves (the Weasley twins may have had something to do with that), and the entire Gryffindor House was crowding him and shouting in congradulations. Harry enjoyed it, because things were starting to look up since his name came out of the goblet. Soon, though, he started getting tired of the noise and attention. Ron seemed to notice first (as Hermione had excluded herself from the main crowd of celebrators) and somehow got Harry out of the middle of the mob and to the corner where Hermione was sitting, cup in hand.

Harry sent his friends thankful smiles.

"I'm happy I survived," he said, quirking his mouth. Hermione rolled her eyes slightly and Ron barked a laugh.

"Mate, that seems to be the story of you life." Ron remarked. Hermione nodded. Her face lit up.

"They said the next clue was the egg, right? Why don't you go ahead and open it and we can start figuring out how to get you through your next task."

"Come on 'Mione, he's just only finished the first one. Why not give him a little break?" Ron said.

Harry intervened before they could start arguing.

"No, it might be a good idea to at least know the clue." Ron relented and Harry picked up the egg he'd taken from the Hungarian Horntail's nest.

As soon as he opened it, a screeching noise filled the common room, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and cover their ears with their hands. Harry scrambled to close the egg, immediately stopping the horrific noise. Those who had been partying were staring at the trio.

"What in the bloody hell was that!" George Weasley asked. Harry held up the egg.

"Sorry. Didn't know if was going to do that."

"Well, maybe don't open that thing again until you've figured it out." Seamus said.

Harry nodded.

Before long, the party kicked up again, courtesy of the Weasley twins, and the golden trio was left to their own devices once again.

"I wonder how that's suppose to be a clue?" Hermione's brow furrowed.

"Maybe it's the sound of the next creature Harry will have to defeat?" Ron suggested. His friends turned to him, their eyes wide.

"You're brilliant, Ron!" Harry exclaimed. Ron blushed.

"Not really. I overheard some of the shinobi talking and it sounded like there were other magical creatures involved in the second task."

"Still, it's a really good guess and if we can figure out what kind of creature makes that sound it may give us the clue to the next task!" Hermione burst. "I need to go get a book from my dorm. I'll be back down soon. Don't move." She raced away to the girls dorm, Harry and Ron staring after her.

"Does she think we're dogs maybe?" Ron asked. Harry barked a laugh.

"I think she's just really excited. To think that we may be even more prepared for this second task than this first one-" Harry shook his head, smiling widely.

At that moment Hermione came rushing down the stairs with a familiar, enormous book. It was the book that had served them greatly in researching the different types of dragons.

"When Ron said it could be another creature, I thought this book might be helpful, seeing as it's an encyclopedia on dangerous magical creatures. I'm presuming it'll be dangerous, at least, being in the Triwizard Tournament," She settled down in her chair and started thumbing her way through the book slowly, searching for any creature that created a screeching noise.

"Wait, I have an idea." Ron said, making Hermione look up. "Hermione, do you know how to do the quietning charm?" Hermione's face went red.

"Um, well, I may have learned it...Lavender snores, okay?" Hermione flushed hard as Harry and Ron raised their eyebrows at her and then started laughing at her admission.

When they had stopped laughing and Hermione's face had lessened in color, Ron instructed her to cast the charm on the egg.

Once she had done so, Ron turned to Harry.

"Open it slowly now." Raising an eyebrow at Ron, Harry opened the egg again. This time the screeching was at a more tolerable level of sound. Ron took out his wand.

" _Exscribo!"_ He chanted, pointing his wand at the egg. As he did so, a light drew away from the egg and settled into a small ball at the tip of his wand. He then pointed his wand, and the ball of light at the book in Hermione's hand and chanted " _Repperio."_

The book opened by itself, settling on a page. Hermione leaned over and read the page.

"Banshee. It is the duty of the banshee-"

"Hermione just read the part about the noises they make." Ron interrupted, eyeing the length of the passage. She nodded and scanned the words before continuing reading.

"The screams of the banshee are fatal to the ears, and are echoed by professional mourners or keeners, _bhean chaointe,_ who were engaged to maintain high piercing cries and moans or _ochone_ at a funeral wake."

There was a silence between them before Ron spoke up.

"Well the downside of the spell is that it usually has to be repeated."

"What _was_ that spell?" Hermione asked, Harry nodding in agreement at the question.

Ron turned pink.

"I uh...well I was having trouble researching some things, and then Sen started talking to me, and she suggested I try to come up with my own spell to help speed up the process. Well, I've been working on it for a little while, and Sen and some of the other shinobi have also been helping me a little, even though they also don't really know much about magic, and well I wasn't sure if it would work, but I knew this was going to take a long time and I thought I might as well try and-"

"RON!" Harry and Hermione interrupted him to stop his rambling. He closed his mouth and stared at the floor, looking sheepish.

"Ron, did you seriously create your own spell?" Harry asked, incredulous. Ron nodded.

"Ron, you're _brilliant!"_ Hermione exclaimed. "Even I haven't tried that yet!"

"Thank you, but the shinobi helped me a lot, even though they don't really know that much about magic. Actually that might be why they were so helpful; they could come up with ideas that we never would have thought of."

"Bloody hell they even made you humble!" Harry exclaimed, and the three of them dissolved into laughter at Ron's affronted expression.

"Okay, you are going to teach us that spell, but right now lets just have you perform it so we can try to figure out the clue."Hermione instructed once they had recovered their ability to speak without cracking up again. The two boys nodded and they got to work.

Several trials later, and a couple evasions of parting teens and red headed twins, they arrived at a passage that caught Hermione's eye.

"Here, listen to this, 'Merpeople do not much resemble the Muggle idea of mermaids and mermen. They are very thin, with very long arms and a fish's tail; some are armed with spears. They have high-pitched voices, and seem to be able to speak, or at least parrot, some English words; however, among themselves they generally speak their own language, Mermish. Above water their singing or speech sounds like a screech, yet underwater it is eerie and hypnotic.'"

"That could make sense," Ron said thoughtfully. "I mean, if this was supposed to be a clue, it could be more than just the sound of the creature, since there are a lot of creatures that can screech like that. For mermish, there could be more to the clue that we can't understand right now because we aren't in the water." Harry and Hermione stared at him for a couple seconds before they both nodded. Hermione moved her finger down the passage.

"And- here. It says that there is a large village of merfolk living in the Hogwarts lake, and Dumbledore was one of the first humans they were willing to attempt communication with," she paraphrased.

"So, I'm going to be fighting...merfolk for the next trial?" Harry asked. Hermione frowned.

"Well, technically, you didn't and weren't supposed to fight the dragons; you just had to avoid them to steal this egg from them. I'm also presuming that since the relationship between merfolk and the wizarding world are still a little stressed, neither side would agree to a full on battle. And the merfolk would most definitely have a say in being a part of the tournament." She took a deep breath after her stream on consciousness was almost completed.

"You think they will be guarding something, like the dragons were guarding the eggs." Ron finished. Hermione nodded.

"Maybe a clue for the last tournament."

"Well, no matter what I'll have to get from the merfolk, I'll have to figure out some way to breath underwater! I highly doubt that they would make it so convenient for me to come out on shore." Harry pointed out.

The productive energy the three had been running on till then slithered out of them.

"Perfect, so we still have more research…" Ron groaned. "And I don't think I can use that spell for research like that…"

They sat in silence for a couple minutes, thinking about the upcoming task, and the daunting assignment in front of them.

"You three should get some sleep." A cheerful voice spoke. The Golden Trio jumped and turned to see Sakura lounging on the thick arm of the couch where Harry and Ron were sitting. She smiled at them, a hint of mischief glimmering in her eyes.

"What time is it anyway?" Harry wondered, rubbing his suddenly heavy eyes.

"About one in the morning," she replied casually.

"You're joking!" Hermione exclaimed, eyes wide. Sakura chuckled and shook her head no. "Merlin's beard! I need to get to sleep!" Hermione turned to the boys, smiled, collected her book, then turned around a scurried up to her dorm, shouting over her shoulder, "we'll do more research tomorrow-oh! Today! Oh Merlin…!"

Harry and Ron shared a glance, before folding over, tears escaping from their eyes. It was probably the sleep deprivation. It couldn't have been Hermione's reaction; no definitely not.

"We should get some sleep too, mate," Ron managed after a while. "You had a big day today-eh… yesterday. You especially need rest." Harry nodded and the two got up from the couch.

"Hey, where did Sakura go?" Harry asked, realising the pink haired shinobi had disappeared during their fit of hysteria. Ron shrugged, and the two continued up the stairs to their room.

* * *

Naruto waited in the Headmasters office for only seven minutes before the eccentric man himself swept in through the door.

"Ah, good, you are here. I hope you didn't wait too long?" Naruto shook his head.

"The portraits kept me company as well. It seems that Kakashi-sensei's painting has been evading questioning." Dumbledore smiled.

"Hmm, I do wonder how long it will take for them to realize that it is highly unlikely that a shinobi, especially one of his calibre, would give up information." Naruto matched the smile.

"Now, on to business. I first wanted to thank you and your whole team for your timely assistance today."

"We did our jobs. That is the reason we are all here, after all." Dumbledore nodded.

"Yes, and you proved today especially that hiring you all was the correct decision. How is the rest of your team?"

"No one is badly injured, though a couple are currently recuperating from extensive chakra usage and avoiding the students." Naruto replied, standing up straighter. It surprised even him how being the leader of this mission and working with the other ninja and wizards had made him so professional now. At necessary times, of course. He wouldn't be loosing that child-like streak any time soon if he could help it.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Now, the other reason I wanted you here was so that I could brief you more in detail about the next task. I will be briefing the other captains as well, but I heard that your team had the most experience with magical creatures."

" _ **Is he calling us mere magical creatures?!"**_ Kurama intervened, causing Naruto to crinkle his eyes a bit, in what he, Sakura, and Sasuke referred to as " _the Kakashi smile."_ Naruto cleared his throat.

"Um, I guess you could say that. It's a little different, but it shouldn't matter too much. Animals do tend to like Sakura and I naturally, even without our experience. Is the next task also involving magical creatures like the dragons?"

"Well, not like dragons, but magical creatures, yes. On a related note, do any of you have an ability to breath underwater?"

Naruto's mind did a quick " _uhhhhhhhhhhhh"_ before being more helpful and scanning through the known abilities of his fellow ninja. "I can't think of anyone right now, but I'll ask them anyway. If not, then we have time to figure something out. Between all of us, we have a fairly large knowledge of ninjutsu, even if we haven't tried to use them before." He explained.

Dumbledore nodded again.

"Very well. Let us continue this discussion tomorrow."

Naruto discerned that that meant they would have to come up with a vague idea on underwater breathing techniques by then as well. He also took that statement to be one of dismissal, so he bowed to the Headmaster before exiting the wild room.

Once he made it back to the shinobi living quarters, he sat down in a meditative position and began to rejuvenate himself and have a conversation with Kurama until the rest of the ninja were ready to talk.

He hoped nothing bad would happen for the next couple of days, at least.

* * *

 **Does that count as a cliffhanger? I don't know. Especially considering I don't know what the cliff is hanging over. Basically, I've been suffering from severe writer's block (and some senioritis, which is seriously an actual thing) and the reason this chapter was shorter than normal and kinda bad.**

 **So PLEASE! Review with constructive criticism (I love you guys; y'all are so nice compared to what I've seen other fanfic authors mentioning about their reviews), general love ;), and then any suggestions y'all have. I need suggestions. A lot. Also, idk if this helps, but I reply to reviews and pm's pretty quickly, provided it's replyable.**

 **I'm rambling, sorry, review and be awesome!**

 **Zardi**


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